694 
THE AMARYLLinjE 
pots into a hot-house, and let them remain there, giving a moderate 
supply of water until the bulbs are perfected, then remove them to -a 
cool part of the green-house, and keep them perfectly dry; in this 
genus is the famous poison-bulb, from which is extracted the deadly 
poison, used by the natives of Southern Africa, to cover the heads of 
their arrows; Mr. Burchell says,* “the plant is of frequent occur¬ 
rence in the more acid districts of Southern Africa, growing both in 
sandy plains and rocky spots, on the banks of the Bushmen’s river, 
at Rautenbacks Drift. It is also found on the great sandy plains of 
Litaakun. I have been assured by the bushmen themselves, that the 
juice of the bulb is one of the ingredients, most commonly used in 
the poisonous composition, with which the heads of their arrows are 
covered. The wild antelopes seem carefully to avoid bruising the 
leaves of this plant, as I have observed it always left untouched, al¬ 
though the surrounding herbage has been grazed over.” It appears 
from what has been otherwise collected, that the poison used is a 
mixture of several substances, “the principal ingredient is always 
the poison taken from snakes, which being fluid and volatile is incor¬ 
porated with the juice of a large kind of spurge, (Euphorbia) by 
which it acquires a waxy consistence, to this is added the juice of 
the bulb of Brunsvigia toxicarius, an alkali, supposed to add most 
powerfully to the activity of the poison.” 
9. Nerine, (Nerine the daughter of Nereus.) These are all 
green-house plants, and require similar treatment to the Cyrtanthus, 
Haemanthus, and other Cape bulbs ; the culture of the Guernsey 
lily (N. sarniensis) however differs in some points from these, I 
shall therefore take the liberty of detailing it. These bulbs are sup¬ 
posed to be originally natives of Japan, but have now become quite 
naturalized to the climate and soil of the Islands of Guernsey and 
Jersey, where they grow and flower in the open ground with great 
freedom, and from whence they are annually imported every sum- 
, mer; under the general treatment of other bulbs, they seldom flower 
after the first year of introduction, or flower so weak as scarcely to be 
worth harbouring: the chief art therefore in cultivating them is to 
grow them to perfection for many successive years, instead of having 
to buy a quantity every year. They are generally received in July 
or August from Guernsey, with the flower stems more or less ad¬ 
vanced, they should then be immediately planted in upright thirty- 
two-sized pots filled with mould, composed of equal parts of rich 
maiden soil, peat, and leaf-mould, set them in a frame, or in the 
front part of the green-house, where they can have plenty of light 
* Bot. Register, v. 7. fol. o67. 
