158 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
Decembee 1. 
was cultivated, for many years, with great success in 
the front of pine-stoves, when, by forcing it early in 
February, after a winter’s rest, it flowered twice the 
same season,—in the spring and in the autumn. It 
was the same with the Coral-tree ( Erythrina cristagalli). 
When I was a boy, these two were always in the stove, 
rest or no rest; and the gardener who i'ailed to flower 
them twice a-year was not considered worth his por¬ 
ridge. If Amaryllis vittata of those days, now a Hippe- 
aster, and all the other greenhouse kinds that have 
sprung from it, and other half-hardy ones, are potted in 
strong yellow loam only, they will bear stove heat for 
years and years without any injury. I know of no 
other bulbs about which so much can be said, and the 
fact is a presumptive evidence, to my mind, that the 
Tumblers must, some day or other, lapse into Hippe- 
asters. For their cultivation, see under formosissima. 
SPREKELIA GLAUCA. 
This is a much handsomer flower than either of the 
Tumblers, and if seedlings were to be had in the genus, 
this glauca might well be supposed to be only a cross 
from Sprekelia formosissima by some lighter species. 
The flower of glauca is smaller and paler, and there is 
a pale streak along the middle of each division of the 
flower. The leaves are narrow and very glaucous (milky- 
green). It was discovered, in Mexico, by Mr. Hartweg, 
who sent it to the Horticultural Society, with whom it 
flowered in May, 1840. The other kind, cinnabarina, 
of which 1 know nothing more than that it flowered 
with Dr. Herbert, was introduced, and flowered about 
the same time; so that all the new Sprekelias “ tumbled- 
in” much about the same time, and that after we had 
all but forgotten when or whence the old one came. 
SPREKELIA FORMOSISSIMA. 
For three-quarters of a century this was one of the 
commonest bulbs in the country, and no one knew 
exactly where it came from ; but from the nature of the 
plant being able to sustain the heat of the stove, it held 
its place, while hundreds of other bulbs were introduced, 
lost, and forgotten, because they could not bear such 
heat. Mr. Skinner at last found it in Guatemala, 
whence he sent it home; and much about the same 
time, I unpacked half-a-busliel of the bulbs, from the 
gatherings of M. Galeotti, in Mexico, under the patron¬ 
age of Mr. Parkinson, then our Consul in Mexico, so 
that I was not surprised to hear of the locality of glauca. 
From this batch, I had a bed in the open air, aud 
without any protection whatever; and the bulbs with¬ 
stood the severest frost experienced in this country since 
1814. Hence my belief that this old stove bulb, as it 
was once considered to be, is as hardy as a Dutch 
Crocus; but yet it will not flower without ripening-off 
I the bulbs in warmer earth than our south borders. It 
is a perfect evergreen, if you choose to keep it watered 
in the greenhouse during the winter, but, then, it will 
I not flower. At Mclborne, this and Valuta purpurea 
\ would make evergreen beds, and, probably, flower as 
freely as Tulips. 
It is said that few have ever heard of the natural death 
of a donkey, and I believe the same might be said about 
the Jacobtea Lily. It will grow in any good garden 
soil, and in all kinds of composts. In very rich or 
highly-manured ground, as for onions, young bulbs of it 
i will double their size in one season, and they never go 
: to rest till ten degrees of frost kills the leaves. Butin 
a damp situation they will go with much less frost, or 
if a smart frost comes close upon showery weather it is 
the same. 
Every cross-breeder in Europe has tried his hand on 
it scores of times with no satisfactory result; neither by 
its own pollen, which is good, nor by that of kindred 
bulbs, has it produced a singlo seed. A Mr. Johnson, 
in 1810, gave out that his seedling Amaryllis Jolmsonii 
was between it and vittata, but that mistake has been 
since rectified, by direct experiment on vittata and 
regina, which produced the same cross. Mr. Turner, 
the curator of the Botanic Gardens, at Bury St. 
Edmunds, once wrote to Mr. Loudon about a batch of 
seedlings from formosissima, but I could never learn 
more of them when I was in Suffolk. 
The best way to treat this aud the other species, is to 
flower them in pots, and as soon as the flowers are over 
in May, to turn out the balls under a south wall, or the 
front of a greenhouse, or stove, in rich deep soil, not too 
stiff; to give them water in dry weather, and to let the 
frost kill the leaves in the autumn; or, if there is no 
frost to the end of November, they ought to be taken 
up, then keeping the leaves on, and spreading out bulbs 
aud leaves to dry gently in any dry, warm place; a late 
vinery is the best place; but after a week or ten days, 
you might string them up like onions, and keep them 
all the winter in the kitchen. They certainly like 
warmth all the time they are dry. In March, some of 
them might be potted, and be put into a cucumber-bed 
to start; the flower-scape comes shortly after the leaf, 
and beforo it is quite open remove the pot to in-doors, 
as you would a Hyacinth. In April, put a succession of 
them to work the same way, and in May the same; or, 
it you like it better, keep them dry to the end of April, 
and then plant them out, merely covering the bulbs, 
and they will all flower before Midsummer; only one 
flower to a scape ; but a strong bulb puts out two 
scapes; and a two-flowered scape has been seen now 
and then, but it is a very rare thing. 
I would strongly recommend these bulbs to every one 
who has a garden, as they give no more trouble than 
common border Tulips, and there is a great chance of 
novelties by crossing the Peruvian Tumblers with the 
richer Mexican species. 
STRUMARIA. 
The bulbs included in this genus are, to botanists, the 
most easy to distinguish of any, from the swelling or 
strumous formation of the bottom of the style in all of 
them. This swelling of the lower part of the style, aud 
the regularity of the perianth or flower, are the two 
private marks which divide them from Nerine. They 
never got into favour in cultivation, aud very few 
gardeners know anything more about them than the 
mere names. Angustifolia has regular flowers, white, 
and lined or streaked with red. Truncata differs from it 
only in the leaf to a gardener’s eye. Linguafolia is 
broader in the leaf, which is half-an-inch wide, than 
either of the preceding, and the white flower is lined 
with green. Undulata, at first sight, looks more like a 
Nerine, the flower being undulated; but the white 
colour and swelled style tell it to be a Strumaria. 
Part of the stamens adhere (adnate) to the smaller 
part of the stylo in all of them, except this one, in which 
the stamens aro free; this, with the waved flower, brings 
unclulata very near to Nerine, and, perhaps, it would 
cross with that genus ; and if so, its pure white blossoms, 
faintly tipped with red, would open a wide field for im¬ 
provement in Nerine, and render shades and blushes in 
that section that would vie with Bella Donna itself. 
S. rubella, with a red flower, comes next nearest to 
Nerine, and the rest of the names under Strumaria, in 
our Dictionary, belong rather to Hessea and Imhojia. 
All the Strumarias rest with us in summer, and grow 
from October to May or June; and require exactly the 
same kind of treatment as Nerines. 
Thvsanotus, Teitoma, and Veltheimia, are on my 
list of half-hardy bulbs ; but they are not bulbs, 
although the leaves aud flowers look as if they ought to 
come from bulbs. Anthericums, Pattersonias, and many 
others, have the same looks; and a man might be worse 
