1884 .] 
THE OKANGEBT AS A WINTER FRUIT GARDEN.-THE ALSTRCEMERIAS. 
87 
great pleasure to those who take an interest 
in watching these little floral treasures as they 
put out their new growths and bring forth 
their beautiful blossoms.— B. S. Williams, 
Holloway. 
THE ORANGERY AS A WINTER 
FRUIT GARDEN. 
HERE is no fruit-tree that approaches 
the Orange ; the beauty and profusion 
of its flowers, the sunny golden fruit, 
set off and relieved by the splendid 
glossy ever-green foliage, combine to place 
the Orange in the premier rank—a peer 
amongst its peers. With these qualities it is 
not a little singular that the dismal old orangery 
crowded with straggling bitter fruit should 
have been considered sufficient for its cultiva¬ 
tion, and that in rich England it has not been 
established as a winter fruit-tree, as indis¬ 
pensable to a well kept garden as the pinery 
or vinery. My house has about fifty trees in 
it studded with golden fruit, and has been 
a special pleasure since the beginning of 
November, the season when the fruit assumed 
the rich, sunny, golden hue peculiar to healthy 
Oranges. The temperature has ranged from 
50° to 60°, not much above the outside air, 
the ventilators being open from nine in the 
morning till four in the afternoon, causing no 
discomfort from heat in the house, and no fear 
of catching cold on quitting. 
There is no prettier dish for the dessert 
than the Orange gathered with a ’ stalk of 
leaves ; the fruit is fresh, fragrant, deliciously 
juicy, filling a room with its perfume. A well, 
arranged Orange house, large and lofty, would 
probably pay its expenses and leave some 
profit, no expensive forcing being required. 
It would be unequalled as a winter promenade, 
and I recommend the idea to those who wish 
to promote the attractions of our winter sea¬ 
side resorts.—T. F. Rivers, Sawbridyeicorth 
{.Journal of Horticulture). 
THE ALSTRCEMERIAS. 
CCOMPANYING a handsome plate con- 
f taining coloured figures of several 
varieties of Ahtrcemeria, issued in the 
Revue Horticole, we find the following 
remarks relating to these interesting plants :— 
The charming Amaryllids which form the 
genus Ahtrcemeria were originally from South 
America, from the tropic to the south of Chili. 
They are closely allied to Bomarea, and are 
chiefly distinguished therefrom, in a horticul¬ 
tural point of view, by their stems being erect 
and not climbing. Moreover, the Alstrcemerias 
present to the garden amateur the advantage 
of including several hardy kinds, which thrive 
in the open air, and there produce, in the fine 
season, a profusion of pretty flowers, whose 
seedlings afford much variety in the shades of 
their colour, and are precious for cutting. 
The number of species of Alstrcemerias pub¬ 
lished exceeds fifty. Kunth alone describes 
thirty-nine of them, but the total ought to be 
reduced, as botanists have confounded simple 
varieties with specific types on several occa¬ 
sions. 
Among the specimens which have produced 
the numerous varieties successively obtained 
in cultivation, one especially distinguishes A. 
versicolor A. aurantiaca, perhaps also some 
others badly defined, and which one will have 
introduced without being very sure of their 
identification. Their character is to be nearly 
hardy, even in the climate of Paris, if their 
fleshy roots be sufficiently sunk in the soil, 
and planted in well-drained land. Under 
these conditions they dread nothing from our 
colds, especially if one takes the precaution to 
cover the border where they are planted with 
leaves during the winter. 
Seedlings give numerous varieties, varying 
from scarlet red to violet, from yellow to 
wLite, and passing through all the inter¬ 
mediate shades of ground colour, on which 
the most lively and varied strife of two of the 
internal segments of the perianth are grace¬ 
fully displayed. 
The varieties pourtrayed were cultivated in 
a collection at Rocquencourt Park, by Mme. 
Ch. Heine, the distinguished amateur. The 
plants were set out in several borders a few 
years since, and without having been ever 
taken up, have formed tufts of extreme vigour, 
which do not cease to bloom during all the 
fine season. 
The culture of Alstrcemerias does not pre¬ 
sent any serious difficulty; but there are 
certain principles which must not be forgotten 
under penalty of failure. From the first, pot- 
culture must be renounced ; this rather siiits 
the beautiful creepers of the neighbouring 
genus, Bomarea, now becoming the fashion. 
The fasciculated fleshy roots of the Alstroe- 
merias wmuld be an obstacle to this mode of 
culture, and moreover the open ground suffices 
to have them in all beauty. The following is 
the best mode of preparing the soil: break 
up to a depth of 20 inches a good garden soil, 
at the bottom of which place a drainage of 
stones or rubble and of sand, at least 4 inches 
thick. There will then remain 16 inches 
thick of good soil which must not be chalky. 
