August 13, 18S5. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
139 
exist on the place a email quantity should be bought for the purpose. 
Anyone who has been taking stock of the Strawberry crops in different 
soils this season must have noticed that plants growing in light soil did 
not produce such handsome fruit as those on stiff land, and the succession 
was not so long maintained in the former case as the latter. The same 
rule applies very forcibly to Strawberries in pots.—J. Muir. 
ISMENES. 
Nothing could be more to the point than to give the name Ismene to 
this section of Pancratioid plants. The affinity of these with allied bulbs 
was so suspicious to the mind of Dr. Herbert at the time he instituted 
this genus, that he expected, sooner or later, that at least some of the 
members of the family should be torn asunder and come to a tragic end, 
just such a work as we are bent upon this very day. The genus is alto¬ 
gether Peruvian ; those of them marked as natives of Brazil were only 
garden plants cultivated in Buenos Ayres ; there is no record of one of 
them being found wild in Brazil. Every one of them, without exception, 
will do better with the same kind of treatment as the old Jacobcea Lily 
(Sprekelia formosissima) than any other way—that is to say, to be planted 
out in front of a hothouse in April, and to be taken up about the end of 
October, and kept dry all the winter. Pedunculatum, and more especially 
Calathinum, will live out of doors, winter and summer, just like tbe 
Belladonnas, and flower quite as freely and much earlier ; but still, they 
are much improved by occasional dryings and a change of soil. The 
great yellow Peruvian Daffodil, Ismene Amanoass, does certainly better 
by being taken up every year. None of them like peat or leaf mould, but 
they would live in pure sand for a generation if they were well supplied 
with water during the summer ; and it is best to put in a potful of sand, 
and put each bulb in the middle of the sand at planting time. Another 
very great peculiarity belonging to them, and to Choretis as well, is that 
their seeds vegetate in ten or fifteen days, but never throw up a leaf the 
first season ; a fang starts away from the seed, like as from the bulb of 
some kinds of Oxalis, and at the end of this fang a bulb will form as 
large as a wren’s egg, without any sign of leaf at all the, first season ; and 
that is very likely the reason why these beautiful bulbs are not as common 
as the Belladonna ; and the next reason for their being so scarce may be, 
that their cultivation has not been treated of in popular works, and that 
most people turned them into the stove, where they soon dwindle and 
perish. 
Ismene Amancais (The Peruvian Daffodil).—This is the oldest and 
best known of the genus ; a large, clear yellow flower, the coronet or cup 
is also yellow, and nearly fills the inside of the flower. It has six green 
midribs, and is jagged on the edges. The tube of the flower is also green. 
The leaves sheath at the bottom, and form a round column over the bulb. 
There is a beautiful sulphur-coloured cross between it and Calathina, 
which is figured in “Tbe Botanical Register,” vol. xx., plate 1665; and in 
“ The Botanical Magazine ” the species is called Pancratium Amancfes, 
vol. xxx., plate 1224. It should always grow in the middle of a heap 
of sand, and out of doors, and not be planted till the beginning of 
May, but it will grow in a pot, and even force to flower a month 
earlier. 
Ismene calathina.— The bulb, leaf, and growth are very much like 
the last, but the plant is stronger; the flower and cup are large, and pure 
white ; the flower is full 4 inches across ; the tube is green, and there are 
six greenish stripes in the cup, as in that of Amancaes. No one knows 
vrhere it is a native of, but it is more hardy and less fastidious about sand 
than the last. It was first introduced from the gardens about Buen03 
Ayres. The seedling between it and the last is fertile, and has crossed 
again with the pollen of Amancaes, and a much hardier plant with a 
better flower is the result. Then, if Calithauma is really an Ismene, we 
have emerald-green, golden-yellow, and the most silvery-white, to mix 
and vary into all possible hues, for the front borders of our greoohouses 
and south walls. Add to this the delicious odours in the half-hardy 
white Hymenocallis, not to mention the exquisite fragrance of H. speciosa, 
from the stove, and surely it is worth while to make a fresh start with the 
Pancratium-like bulbs, and not go on for everlasting with such trumpery 
things as common Tulips and Poppy Anemones. 
Ismene deflexa. —Another Peruvian species, with white reflexed 
flowers (not green), which comes the nearest to Elisene, being, as it were, 
the connecting link between the two genera, but in truth Choretis glauca 
and Hymenocallis rotate are just as true links as deflexa, only we must not 
say so botanieally ; but let tbe cross-breeder go to work, and all these 
links will snap asunder like anything. 
Ismene Knightii. —This is the old, beautiful, glittering, white Hyme¬ 
nocallis rotate from Florida, where it grows, near Mobile, in swamps and 
ditches, very deep indeed in the mud; bulbs of it have been dug out 
from the depth of 2 feet. 
Ismene Macleana. —This is another large white flower, which is one 
of the plants celebrated by the Peruvians under the name of Amancses 
and at the foot of the mountain on which it grows is held one of the 
greatest festivals of the Portuguese Church, at Lima, called the Festival 
of the Amancaes. At this festival they all wear nosegays and other orna¬ 
ments made of this flower ; but they put it into the stove, as usual, in the 
Botanic Garden, at Glasgow, to where Mr. Maclean sent it, and tbe proba¬ 
bilities are that they killed it outright. N jne of the family can bear the 
stove with impunity. 
Ismene virescens. —This pretty little plant flowered with the Hor¬ 
ticultural Society in the summer of 1840. It was sent to them from 
Cusco by Mr. Pentland. Many things that were sent by Mr. Pentland 
from the highlands of Peru have been lost through not knowing what 
temperature to give them ; and very likely some of the Fellows of the- 
Horticultural Society, to whom Ismene virescens had been sent, soon lost 
it by placing it in the stove. When the flowers are in the bud they are 
green all over, look like so many green Coburgias, but when they open 
they are whitish or greenish-white inside ; rather small f ir this genus, but 
very neat, and they emit an agreeable lemon-like scent; the bulb spawns, 
well, and is thus easily multiplied by offsets.—C. B. 
SAXIFRAGA GRANULATA FLORE-PLENO. 
The present plant furnishes us with a striking instance of the way in 
which our native plants are neglected in modern gardens. Many of our 
rarer British plants are no doubt difficult to cultivate, but the majority of 
them, and this one in particular, will flourish almost anywhere, the drier 
and stonier the better. In many old-fashioned gardens we have seen 
large patches of it in the mixed border, and a prettier sight during the= 
the exotic plants we cultivate. 
When the plant represented in the cut (fig. 24) is only an illustration 
of wbat may be done with our common Meadow Saxifrage by good culti¬ 
vation, we need not despair of yet adding to our gardens valuable plants 
from the weeds we see around us in the fields. It also makes a handsome 
rockery plant, and when once established, covering dry stony slopes with 
surprising rapidity, the tubers are all the better for a roasting during the 
summer. It may be easily increased by division of the roots.—M. 
ORCHIDS AT HILLINGDON. 
In noting the success achieved with Orchids in the vintries there, 
(see p. 87), I stated there were other Orchids which merited notice, and I 
