406 
AMARYLLIDACEjE. 
in the open ground with sufficient protection from frost, they 
would not have flowered before March or April. H. Tazetta 
which does not bloom here before April or May, in its native 
Maltese pastures produces its flowers in January. I make no 
doubt that Corcyrensis planted on the hot shore of Malta, 
would flower in October, and I think it belongs to the autum- 
nal section. Their autumnal flowering is not a distinct habit, 
as it is in some genera. Last year var. 9 of Tazetta from China, 
produced three flower-stems in Nov. and the same patch of 
bulbs produced three or four more in the spring, frost having 
intervened and damaged the first umbels. Till I had seen 
aequilimba, I concluded that it must be identical with Des- 
fontaines’s 7-flowered African N. serotinus, (Herm. elegans), 
but it proves to be quite different, that plant having slender 
leaves not ^th of an inch wide, like serotina, and a diminu- 
tive cup. The flowers of aequilimba are sweet. This plant 
has been as yet discovered in no other spot ; its early flowering 
would make it an acquisition for forcing, but perhaps it will 
not flower a second season freely in our cloudy climate. It 
might answer to the Maltese to cultivate it with manure 
in their sunny island for exportation. H. papyracea flowers 
in its native situation in Nov. and Dec. and var. 12 of Tazetta 
(see below) in Oct. 
Hermione bifrons. Tube green, limb and cup always 
yellow, style just exceeding ; leaves glossy green. It comes 
near to tazetta, but has a very different aspect. Found wild 
near Montpelier. 
Hermione brevistyla. Tube green, limb white or yel- 
low, cup orange or yellow however pale, style much shorter 
than the tube, leaves subglaucous. I find this plant in no 
herbarium, and its native habitation is not clearly recorded. 
Our gardens are filled with fine varieties of it, which are very 
hardy. It seems not to be a native of the neighbourhood of 
the western portion of the Mediterranean, from whence the 
collected specimens are derived, and was probably introduced 
into our gardens from Constantinople, which in the days of 
Clusius and Parkinson was in the habit of supplying us with 
bulbs. These short-styled plants can scarcely be supposed 
to have been raised by cultivation from the little H, dubia, 
and are evidently not garden varieties of any of the other 
species. Some of them were known 200 years ago, and it 
seems most likely that they have been derived from the nor- 
thern part of the Turkish empire, beyond the walk of our 
collectors. Its native situation being unknown, it has con- 
