1S79. j 
NOTE ON STEELITZIAS.-THE ROMAN HYACINTH. 
35 
the vine than when cut and hung up, that it 
must do so as the result of receiving supplies 
of sap from the parent stem. I grant this, but 
it does not follow that it is water, pure and 
simple, that it gets. In my opinion, it gets 
something that man cannot supply in any other 
way. 
As bearing on the subject, I may relate a cir- 
eumstance in my own experience, which goes 
some way to confirm my suspicions in this 
matter. I know a lady who has been many 
years an invalid, and who almost lives on 
grapes, nothing else doing her so much good. 
My supply came to an end, and when, on visit¬ 
ing a friend, I saw that he had a fine lot of 
grapes “ bottled,” I asked him for a bunch for 
her, and he gave me two. She received them 
with great pleasure and ate them as usual, but 
after consuming one bunch, she took quite ill, 
and said the grapes had disagreed with her. I 
disputed this, and as soon as she recovered to 
her usual state, I got her to try the second 
bunch, and it had exactly the same effects. 
She was not then aware that they had been 
“ bottled.” I have kept Grapes by sharpening 
the ends of the stems, and inserting them in 
mangold-wurtzel or beet-root, and found them 
keep just as plump and fresh as those “ bot¬ 
tled,” but I am not prepared to say if doing this 
will obviate the difficulty I suspect in the case 
of pure water. 
I have come to the conclusion that, except 
for the sake of appearance, it is far better to 
keep Grapes without water than with it; and 
I think the question is worthy discussion,* see¬ 
ing that the practice of “ bottling ” Grapes is 
extending.— Wm. Thomson, Ticccd Vmei/ard. 
NOTE ON STEELITZIAS. 
S ms genus of very splendid plants is too 
rarely met with, seeing that it may be 
cultivated in a cooler atmosphere than 
that in which it is usually found. There are 
several species, and S. regina; is worth grow¬ 
ing in every garden. The one commonly 
grown under this name in this country is 
tallish. Another of dwarfer habit, which has 
the best and finest flowers, is seen mostly in Con¬ 
tinental gardens, but rarely in this countiy. I 
made its acquaintance in Paris, and whether 
* Will aomo of our readers state the results of their ex¬ 
perience on this important question.—En. 
I am right in describing it as a dwarf S. reguice, 
or it be another species, I will leave for others 
better acquainted with the genus to decide. 
Whatever its name, it has very brilliant- 
coloured orange and blue flowers, most vivid 
in colour. 
I have several plants in 8-in. pots, flowering 
with one stem. It was one plant last year, 
but I divided it, and each sucker has a good 
flowering stem, which is longer than the leaf, 
throwing up the brilliant inflorescence higher 
than the rest of the plant. This is not so 
in the ordinary type, for as far as I re¬ 
member from seeing it flowering here and 
there, the leaves are much longer than the 
flower-stems. [Probably yours is S. ovata.^ I 
grow my plants drier and cooler than some, 
which may account for their being dwarfer to a 
certain extent, but I am inclined to think I 
have a different kind from the ordinary type. 
—H. Knight, Floors Castle. 
THE EOMAN HYACINTH. 
HE early-blooming small-flowered Hya¬ 
cinth, so useful for early forcing, which 
has come into fashion of late years, has 
not been cultivated here, at least on a large 
scale, till wdthin the last dozen or score years. 
As some interest has been excited in the his¬ 
tory of these plants we {Gardeners’ CJironicle) 
supply what information we have been able to 
glean on the subject, leaving, as will be seen, 
some gaps still to be filled up. Our first in¬ 
quiry was of M. Krelage, of Haarlem, who tells 
us that to the best of his knowledge, the Roman 
Hyacinth was in cultivation in Holland forty to 
fifty years ago, rather as a curiosity than as an 
article of commerce. In Germany, on the 
other hand, there was a regular sale of the 
bulbs, though not to a large extent. M. 
Krelage, who in 1839 directed a branch 
establishment of his firm in Frankfort, used 
regularly to import from Holland several hun¬ 
dreds of these bulbs, so as to supply flowers 
for Christmas. For this purpose, they were 
grown three in a pot and forced. M. Krelage’s 
firm was the first, we believe, who dealt largely 
in Roman Hyacinths for foreign exportation. 
M, Krelage further tells us that the plant is 
probably a native of the South, perhaps Italy. 
If planted in the open ground in northern 
climes, the bulbs gradually produce fewer and 
smaller flowers, and these are produced later 
and later, the bulbs themselves becoming 
larger. In Vilmorin’s Flevrs de Pleine Terre., 
mention is made of Paris Hyacinths, which, it 
is stated, only differ from Dutch Hyacinths, of 
which they are probably varieties, in being 
hardier, and having less dense spikes of bloom. 
D 2 
