176 
AMARYLLIDACEiE. 
longer, and the stigma less trifid. The leaves are 
wanting to the specimen. 
Obs. The genus Zephyranthes, requiring rest in winter, 
may be kept dry at that season, and planted out in the full 
sun in very sandy soil in the spring. 
§. 2. Antheris subulato-tortilibus, erectis apice reflexo ; 
polline difformi ; stigmate obtusiore, lobis sub-erec- 
tis. Genus diversum ? Argyropsis. 
1. Candida. — Bot. Mag. 53. 2607. Am. Candida. Bot. 
Reg. 9. 724. 
Var. 1. Flore majore. — Specim. Herb. Hooker. Mat- 
thews, 434. ex hortis veteribus per Lim® vallems. 
Var. 2. Flore minore. — PI. 24. f. 2. Specim. Tweedie 
ex ripa fluminis La Plata , ita ab argenteo plant® 
hujusce floridissim® aspectu nuncupati. Herb. 
Hooker. 
Var. 3. Rubro extus suffusa. — From Buenos Ayres. 
Reddish outside. 
Var. 4. Fortuita. — Quadrilocularis. Ex Bonaria. Peri- 
anthii segmentis et staminibus octo, stigmatis lobis 
et capsul® loculis quatuor ; scapo pedali ; flore 
majusculo. 
This plant, conspicuous by its fleshy, semicylindrical and 
rush-like leaves, which resist the severest frost of our usual 
winters, has ripened its seeds with me after snow had lain 
upon them for three weeks. I have seen the quicksilver 
fifteen degrees below the freezing point (Fahren.) without 
its losing more than the ends of its leaves. I have not been 
able to ascertain that it is indigenous in the west of South 
America, though abundant in old gardens in the valley of 
Lima. There is no difference in the hardiness of the consti- 
tution of the bulbs from Lima and those from Buenos Ayres, 
where the banks of the Plata are so covered with it that it is 
understood that the river was called La Plata, meaning 
silver, on account of the profusion of its white blossom on the 
shore. I have had seventy flowers expanded at once on a 
small patch of the plant at Spofforth. It is strange that this 
plant, which thrives in the hot valley of Lima, should have 
stood out of doors here nine or ten years unprotected, with- 
out ever losing its leaves entirely. Perhaps the strong cur- 
rent of air which must accompany the rush of such a great 
