APRIL. 
73 
/ 
should be given into a larger size, and again plunge them in a hotbed-frame. 
Under this treatment the plants will soon make flowering bulbs. 
Seeds of the Amaryllis, as well as of most other bulbs, should be sown as 
soon as ripe. They should be sown in pans or pots, and plunged in a hotbed. 
When the young plants are sufficiently high, they should be potted off, either 
singly in small pots, or several in large pots. They ought to be again plunged 
in a hotbed, and be attended to as regards watering and air. As soon as their 
pots are filled with roots, shift them into larger ones, giving them three or four 
shifts in the course of the season; they will then grow rapidly, and many of 
them will flower at twelve months old. After that, they should have the same 
treatment as flowering bulbs. 
The late Mr. Mayes, of the Bristol Nurseries, who had been a pupil of 
Sweet, was an enthusiastic grower, and a very successful hybridiser of the 
Amaryllis family, he having raised some of our best hybrids. 
The following list includes some of the best varieties in cultivation :— 
aulica platypetala 
imperial's 
marginata 
Prince of Orange 
Ackermani 
Johnsoni 
conspicua 
pulcherrima 
pulcherrima 
striata 
venusta 
radiata 
Ariadne 
superba 
mirabilis 
reticulata 
Bellissime 
Jerdoni 
Miranda 
refulgens 
brasiliensis 
insignis 
Novelty 
san guinea 
Cardinal 
intermixta 
obscura 
spectabilis 
Cleopatra 
angusta 
optima 
Sweetii 
delicata 
lineata 
picta 
vittata 
Diomeda 
magnifica 
Princesse de Ligne 
pallida 
elegans 
ignescens 
Stourton. 
majestica 
psittacina 
superba 
M. Saul. 
m 
REMARKS ON FRUIT TREE CULTURE.—No. 8. 
The tendency to vertical growth, on which I remarked in my last, has led 
to the adoption of various modes of training fruit trees against walls, many of 
which are especially designed for the purpose of counteracting that tendency, so 
as to induce a fruitful habit of growth, and for the avoidance of too much mani¬ 
pulation with the knife. Several of these modes which were adopted in other 
days were simply ridiculous, because complicated, and in some cases almost 
impossible to be carried out in anything like a reasonable time ; but the point 
started from, and on which all the operations were based, was that which we 
are accustomed to call the horizontal mode, which consisted of a central stem 
growing upright, from which the branches were all trained at right angles. 
This, to a certain extent, has sometimes been attended with a successful 
result for a time ; but as the operators never went to the root of the matter, by 
cutting off the supply through the roots, they could not in time prevent the 
tendency to produce vigorous and unfruitful wood, particularly towards the 
centre, thereby often inducing premature decay in the fruit-bearing horizontal 
branches; and therefore no advantage whatever was gained over the much 
more natural and symmetrical mode of training all the branches from one 
common centre, or, in other words, that which is usually called fan training. 
I consider that all distorted and unnatural modes of training are more or 
less dangerous according as they approach nearer to, or diverge farther from, 
the natural tendency of growth ; and besides, we can put so many restrictions 
on growth, that there is, in fact, no need to resort to distorted modes of 
training. The mode of training out trees in the shape of a fan embraces all 
the advantages which are required from any system of training, and is appli¬ 
cable to all fruit trees, except perhaps Pears, which, from their extreme vigour 
e 2 
