114 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ August, 
bring tliem back to our gardens, as tliey are 
plentiful enough on the Continent, and every 
enterprising nurseryman will henceforward give 
them a prominent place in his autumn-bulb 
catalogue.—W. Coleman, Eastnor. 
LACIIENALIAS. 
AR too little use is made of this beauti¬ 
ful genus of Cape bulbs, w r hich last 
Spring was brought prominently into 
notice by the appearance of a fine hybrid, 
raised by the Rev. J. 0. Nelson, of Aldborough 
Rectory, Norwich. Wo occasionally find the 
Lachenalia brought out in great beauty, but 
the instances in which this result is seen are 
few and far between, and the plants them¬ 
selves, though not difficult to grow, very 
readily slip through the cultivator’s fingers. 
The genus consists, according to Mr. J. G. 
Baker, of three botanical groups or sections, of 
which one only, Eulachenalia, is of much im¬ 
portance from the decorative point of view, the 
others being rather of botanical than horticul¬ 
tural interest; and of these Eulachenalias, there 
are only three well-marked types, namely :— 
L. pendula, marked by its more robust 
stature, broader leaves, and flowers in which 
the segments of the outer row are nearly as 
long as those of the inner. Good figures will be 
found Bot. Mag., t. 599 ; Andreivs Bot. Rep., t. 
62 ; Redoutes Liliacecv, t. 52, and Jacquiiis 
leones , t. 400, which latter work contains by 
far the most complete series of plates of 
Lachenalias which we possess. L. pendula 
has a couple of fleshy leaves above an inch 
broad, a stout scape about half a foot long, 
and a lax raceme of from six to fifteen cylin¬ 
drical flowers above an inch long, in which 
bright red predominates, 
L. rubida is dwarfer in stature and narrower 
in leaf, with outer segments about a quarter of 
an inch shorter than the inner three. Good 
figures of the typical form will be found Bot. 
Mag., t. 993, and Jacquin s leones , t. 398. It 
extends its range from Cape Town into Nama- 
qualand, and there are two varieties, both 
figured by Jacquin, namely, tigrina and 
punctata , in which the outer segments have 
bright red blotches or dots upon a pale ground. 
L. tricolor is the commonest and best 
known of the species, and is marked by its 
dwarfer stature as compared with pendula, and 
rather smaller flowers and narrower leaves, but 
especially by the outer segments of the perianth 
being scarcely more than half as long as the 
three inner. Of this, in addition to the type 
as figured Bot. Mag., t. 82, there are three 
varieties, namely, L. quadricolor, figured in 
Jacquin s leones, t. 396, and Andrews’ Bot. 
Rep., t. 148, in which the outer segments are red 
at the base, and yellowish-green upwards, and the 
inner bright red at the tip, with a yellow claw ; 
L. luteola, figured Bot. Mag., t. 1704, in which 
both rows of segments are lemon-yellow ; and 
L. aurea, which is figured in Florist, 1871, p. 
265 ; Gard. Chron., 1872, p. 109 ; and Bot. 
Mag., t. 5992, a fine variety with the segments 
of both rows bright orange or golden-yellow. 
Mr. Nelson’s hybrid Lachenalia was raised 
between L. aurea and L. luteola, and combines 
the rich yolk-of-egg-yellow of the former with 
the free-flowering and free-growing habit of 
the latter. It will be a welcome addition to 
our limited number of these pretty Cape bulbs, 
the more especially on account of its free habit. 
We learn that L. aurea was the male parent, and 
L. luteola the female. The seed was sown in 
the autumn of 1877, and the batch of seedlings 
are blooming in the spring of 1880, which is 
good evidence of its free-flowering character. 
Some of the cultivated Lachenalias, as L. 
aurea, have the peculiarity of taking long rests, 
sometimes lying dormant for a whole season, and 
many persons fail to keep them continuously in 
health. From our own observations of fifty 
years since, when we knew of some which were 
admirably cultivated in the window of an ordi¬ 
nary living-room, we are inclined to think they 
like a drier atmosphere than they generally 
get. Mr. Divers, of Burghley Gardens, how¬ 
ever, states ( Gard. Chron., N.S., xiii., 340) that 
he has grown L. quadricolor in various tem¬ 
peratures, ranging from 40° to 70°, and has 
always found them succeed best at 40° to 50° 
in a moderately damp atmosphere, close to the 
glass. The finest he ever saw were grown in a 
cold pit from which the frost was barely ex¬ 
cluded, in pans 4 inches deep, and were potted 
in good loam, with a liberal supply of sand and 
charcoal, and a little leaf-soil, and well fed 
also with liquid manure. A well-grown pan of 
Lachenalias, containing from twenty to thirty 
bulbs, well repays a little extra care in its 
culture. 
