January 0. 
THE COTTAGE GAKDENER. 
201 
! 
vation was so little undcrstoocl at first that lew could 
fiowei' them; so that one botanist seldom had an oppor¬ 
tunity of examining more than one or two species; and 
each succeeding botanist had a different notion about 
the points that distinguish one species from another, 
and the result is, that not the slightest reliance can be 
placed on all that has been written botauically on Ama- 
ryllids from the days of Ifinnieus. 
Brunsvigia uRANniFLoiiA.— 'This is the next largest 
bulb, and a true Brunsvigia, flowering before the leaf in 
September or October, after resting all the summer, and 
growing with us during the winter and spring like a 
Hyacinth. 'The same treatment we give to our best 
Hyacinths will just suit it. If it were shut up close in 
a cold frame for ten days, before the end of January, it 
would not recover itself that season : it is much more 
impatient of want of air than Josepldna. 1 had a native 
specimen of the flowers of this bulb gathered within 
tide-mark, or, at least, very nearjtho sea, in Table Bay; 
and tlio naval officer who gathered it was confident 
that the roots must have been often in salt water. 
There were forty-two flowers in the umbel, and each 
flower stalk was a foot long, and probably more 
before drying. There is not much difference in the 
flowers of this and of Josephime. They are a dull-red 
colour chiefly; and after ail tlic talk we make about 
them, they are not very showy or gay, but only curious. 
Multijioni is of a much brighter colour; and that of 
Amocaris fcdcata is gayer than cither of them. 
Brunsvigia JosEriUN/u.—'This is the easiest to flower 
of them all, and the easiest to keep. A smart frost has 
no eflect on tlio leaves. 1 liad common pot Geraniums 
killed, roots and all, within a foot of it in a border, 
without any bad effects cither on its broad, recumbent 
leaves, or on the neck of the bulb, which was up to the 
surface. 'There are two or three varieties of it, unless they 
arise from the ditfercnce in the ago of the bulbs. One of 
them is certainly more streaked with minute darli lines in 
the flower. Any attempt at forcing this bulb deranges it 
for twelve months. 'The pot cannot be too small for it, if 
the bulb can be got inside of it, and a good depth for the 
roots; the bulb is just as safe if only one-third in the 
ground; and it never wants a change till it splits the 
pot, like a strong Crinuin. 1 have seen it with only 
fifteen flowers on a scape, but generally there are from 
twenty to thirty, and they spread out candelabra- 
fashion, guite as much as those of ii. grandijlora. 
Brunsvigia lucida. —'This name must be expunged 
from the genus, the plant it is applied to being a true 
Nerine. It was by a mistake in Dr. Herbert’s Appendix 
that it got into this genus. He, however, made the 
correction in his AmanjUidacece. It suffices here, there¬ 
fore, to say, that it must be kept growing all the winter 
in a low temperature, and with abundance of air. 
fitroug, friable, yellow loam suits all this race. 
Brunsvigia warginata. —'This bulb is totally lost to 
us. it was found.by Masson on the west coast on this 
side of the Gape, and is figured byjaegnin; but as it 
is supposed to be the only link by wiiich Amaryllis 
can be united to Nerine, through Brunsviyia, 1 shall 
describe it, in the hope that some one journeying from 
Gape 'Town to the Orange River may fall in with it. 
Any one the least aeguainted with plants may know it. 
'The leaves are about three inches wide, and four long, 
when the flower scape appears; and there is a red 
tinge all round the edges of the leaves, which no other 
African bulb represents. On sgiieezing the leaf between 
the fingers it has a disagreeable smell. 'Tlie flowers 
are a little waxy, and not guite scarlet. Any one who 
could get this bulb and carry it to Sidney, would open a 
sluice which would drown one-half of our bulb botanists, 
and woidd very nearly place the beautiful Amaryllis on 
the same footing which Linnieus gave it. 
Brunsvigia minor is only a dwarf variety of Jo- 
sephirae, if even that. 
Brunsvigia jidltifi.ora. —A true Brunsvigia, and 
the best of them, but was mismanaged I'or more than 
twenty years, through Mr. Sweet saying that it was a 
stove plant, in the first number of “ The Gardener’s | 
Magazine.” He said it was like Ilcemanthas midtiflorus, i 
but they were then (182U) in such confusion that we I 
hardly knew which ho meant. But these midlifloras, ! 
however, will live out-of-doors with a very slight pro¬ 
tection, and Sweet never could have written that from 
his own jiractice, for boat soon spoils them It reguires 1 
exactly the same treatment as B. Josephime, B. yrandi- 
Jtora, B. eiliaris, and is the best of them for crossing 
with Belladona on one side, or with Valotta and Nerine 
venusta on the other. A triple cross from the three last 
would make the finest genus of all that we know of in 
Amaryllids ; but we want the connecting link [B. mar- 
(jinata) before Nerine will breed with any of them. 
Brunsvigia raoula. —A small bulb, also from the 
west coast on this side the Gape, of which we know 
nothing beyond Jaeguin’s figure. Like B. mnryinata, 
it comes near to Nerine. 'Thus it would seem that the 
intermediate link which is wanting to com\e.{it Amaryllis 
to Nerine inhabits a zone on the north-west limits of 
the genus in Africa, where no botanical collector visited 
since Masson. 
Brunsvigia striata. — 'This is either a variety of 
B. muUiJiora, with the flowers more streaked, or a 
nonentity. 
Brunsvigia (Buphank) toxICAria. — 'I’bis, like all 
Buphanes, has the flowers much crowded in the head. 
'They are smaller and more erect than in the true 
Brunsviyia, but the same kind of culture and soil will j 
suit tliem. A strong, friable, yellow loam, pressed hard, j 
and with good drainage, is best. One accustomed to 
Gape bulbs could pick out B. toxicaria at first sight, 
from the light brown colour, and the long shape of tlie 
bulb. An upright hyacinth-pot is sufliciently long for 
a full-grown bulb of it. 'J'he least touch, or cut, to any 
part of the living substance will cause it to bleed a 
thick creamy substance, wdiich is said to be poisonous, 
and which, I know, will stain linen badly. 
'The best of all these is Brunsviyia multijlora and 
Amocaris j’alcata, and then Ji. yrand.ijlora, and the 
fourth, B. Josephime; aud except it be for experiments, 
these four are all that are worth growing of the very 
large Gape bulbs. B. eiliaris, if well grown, would look 
well, or rather interesting, from the great guantity of 
flowers in one head. None of them are worth crossing 
in England, except to prove how far the limits of A)na- 
ryllis extend, because seedling bulbs of them take half 
a lifetime to flower; but in Australia, New Zealand, 
tlie south of China, Natal, or Valparaiso, and such 
places of similar climate, they are, of all other bulbs, the 
most promising. 
Under Cyrtanthus, which is another section of Ama¬ 
ryllis, I shall point out the cause why crosses in many 
of those sections have failed in Australia. After getting 
through all the bulbs, 1 shall point out classes of them 
which will do to grow together in different ways. 
Meantime, two corrections have reached me already, 
for which I am very thankful. I said that none of the 
Collanias were introduced ; they are Alstromeria-looking 
plants, with a growth exactly like the common Britil- 
larins of our own meadows, an upright rigid stalk, the 
top of which bends over, from which a cluster of flowers 
hangs down. Collania dulcis, flowered at Sjiofforth, and 
wms figured in “ 'The Botanical Ilegistcr ” in 1812. I 
said that the error about peleyrina was continued by 
every one save Ur. Herbert; and am told that Ur. 
Lindley whites pereyrina since the mistake was dis¬ 
covered. I am too old now to take offence at anything 
in this way, and would wish to be criticised severely in 
