AMARYLLIDACEjE. 
231 
have been the first discoverer of this plant. Indeed, roots of 
it were in my hands before he had seen it in Africa. It is a 
plant of perfectly easy culture, requiring no particular care 
but to shelter it from frost, and it flowers freely in the green- 
house if placed near a front light, and ripens its seeds ; but 
the seedlings are of very slow growth. The reason of its not 
having flowered in my collection earlier was that from the 
slowness of its growth 1 had been induced to put it in the stove, 
hoping that it might grow there more freely; but the heat 
increased its sulkiness. Its berries in a cool greenhouse are 
sometimes a year ripening ; they will hang on a long time 
after, and on opening them the seeds will often be found to 
have vegetated within the pericarp. The fruit as figured in 
the Bot. Mag. is shrivelled and unlike its usual appearance. 
The ripe pericarp is properly smooth, without furrows, and 
scarlet, with a juicy pulp between the outer and inner coat 
like that of Haemanthus and Tamus ; but I have now before 
me a fruit of Clivia, nearly ripe, in which the seeds have 
split the pericarp, which is outwardly of a rough brownish 
green, and instead of juicy pulp has a tough greenish flesh, 
and will probably never become red and juicy; shewing how 
easy is the transition from a coloured and juicy to a dry 
capsule. 
This plant has been likened to Cyrtanthus, and a ques- 
tion entertained whether it is distinct from that genus, and 
Sir W. Hooker says that it has the habit of a Cyrtanthus, 
but to me it appears to have scarcely any point of resem- 
blance, except the scarlet colour and pendulous posture of 
some of that genus. Professor Lindley observed its real 
affinity to Hsemanthus, which it approaches so nearly in its 
most important features as to have made me hesitate to pro- 
nounce that it was not an Haemanthus, and capable of breed- 
ing with species of that genus. Those who likened it to 
Cyrtanthus did not consider the distinctions of scape, seed, 
and bulb, nor that Cyrtanthus has the flower with a long 
wide-mouthed tube and a very short open limb ; whereas 
Clivia has a short close tube and a long limb almost closed 
at the mouth. The perianth of Clivia has been inconside- 
rately called tubular, which is not the case, though the seg- 
ments are closed so as to give a tubular appearance. The 
most skilful botanists have often failed to consider suffi- 
ciently which features are compatible and which are incom- 
patible with identity of genus ; but the affinities of plants 
