THE GARDENING WORLD . 
339 
Round the Nurseries. 
Amaryllis at Chelsea. 
The. season of the Amaryllis is now in full swing all over 
the country, and the plants are annually becoming more 
popular on account of their effectiveness in conservatories, 
oreenhouses and similar places. Few plants are more easily 
co-own when once the simple requirements are understood. We 
have evidence that all the botanical gardens and hothouses in 
parks to winch the public have access now find it necessary to 
orow batches of Amaryllis for the enjoyment of their visitors. 
The name Amaryllis is merely the popular one, as those who 
have given the subject any attention now know that Hippeas- 
trum and Knight’s Star are the proper botanical and English 
names. The true Amaryllis is entirely confined to A. Bella¬ 
donna and its varieties. 
One house is entirely devoted to them in the Royal Exotic 
Nursery of Messrs. J. Yeitch and Sons, Limited, King’s Road, 
Chelsea. At the present time this house contains 
about 1,150 plants and 500 or GOO spikes of bloom. 
As this is merely intended for the show-house, the 
head-quarters for Amaryllis is now at the firm’s Fel- 
tharn Nursery, where a house 100 ft. long is devoted 
to seedlings and larger plants. Those shown at 
Chelsea have very strong flower-stems this year, some 
of them like Malacca canes. The average size of the 
flowers is larger than that of last year. The foliage 
is good, being at present about half the length of 
the flower-stems. Those having charge of them com¬ 
menced to pot them up in the middle of February. 
Last week the house was in perfection. Out of the 
large number of varieties in bloom, no two of which 
■seem exactly alike, we selected a number of the best 
new varieties- of this year with two exceptions. 
Light Varieties.-—Amongst the light varieties are 
some very pleasing shades, some of them having a 
pure white ground like finei linen, that has been 
bleached with the use of indigo. This race of plants 
is very much disinclined to part with its colour, con¬ 
sequently there are still a few streaks of red, salmon 
or scarlet in the otherwise wlrit-e flowers. 
One of those with the purest white ground is named 
Cyrus, which has a few soft- red streaks on each side 
of the central white ray. Another beautiful fancy 
flower is Mesona, having broadly overlapping and re¬ 
curved segments of a, bright scarlet, with pure white 
edges, which gives the flower a very pretty effect. 
Somewhat in. the same way is Aeons, having crimson- 
scarlet flowers with white edges to the broad over¬ 
lapping - segments. A large flower is that named 
Finnart, which is white and streaked with scarlet onr 
either side of the rays on the upper side of the flower. 
- This and several other varieties have the lower side 
of the flower almost without markings. A very pleas¬ 
ing flower is Halotus, which is bell-shaped and of a 
light rosy-salmon colour. 
The- blooms of Stephanies are of veiy large size, much flat¬ 
tened, with broad overlapping segments of a, bright scarlet, and 
much netted on the- upper half of the flower. Those who like 
netted flowers will find in this ai very pretty variety. Jadera 
has creamy-white flowers more- or less splashed with bright 
scarlet towards the top. These flowers with their solid-look¬ 
ing markings may be compared to marble. Adrastes is also 
a. veiy large flower, lightly netted and lined with scarlet all 
over the creamy-white ground. Quite a different effect is pro¬ 
duced by Dorian, which is striped with red on either sidei of the 
rays, while the white ground is shaded with pink or blush. 
The above nine would constitute a. little collection of light- 
coloured and beautiful varieties of Amaryllis. 
Coloured Selfs.—There are many cultivators and admirers 
of this class of plants who would like to get away from the 
striped, netted, and' mottled flowers occurring in this class of 
plants. During recent years a large number of very fine seifs 
have been evolved in a great variety of shades of colour, so 
that everyone would be sura to find varieties to suit his taste. 
Massive flower's of rich colours are certainly very effective, but 
especially when judiciously mixed with light varieties to show 
off the individuality of the darker colours'. Janitor is a very 
large and open flower of a glossy and rich maroon-crimson, 
deepening in the centre. 
The outer segments of Thespis are very broad and brilliant 
crimson, intensified to' maroon along the centre of each seg¬ 
ment. Teviot, on the other hand, is orange-red, with a maroon- 
crimson centre. The dark glaucous flower-stem is remarkable 
for its strength, and carries four or six massive flowers. A 
very handsome variety is that named Redux, with almost 
uniform brilliant scarlet flowers, with the exception of a small 
glossy crimson area in the centre. 
Phaedon is a beautiful regular flower of a. rich crimson, with 
a maroon centre. The surface of the segments has a glossy 
lustre all over. This, plant, like Teviot, carried four flowers, 
which is a very general number in full-sized plants', although 
there are instances of six on a stem. More effective, perhaps, 
are those varieties which carry two* flower-sca.pes from a bulb j 
indeed, the size of these scapes, the massiveness of the flowers, 
and the bulk of the foliage makes one wonder where all the 
matter can come from to- produce such a bulky plant from so 
small a bulb. 
That named Eglamour carries two flower-scapes, hearing 
huge flowers that may be. described as red, with a maroon 
base. Euphrasia is a. finely-shaped flower of a. dark crimson, 
with maroon centre. Indeed, this is one of the most uniformly 
dark flowers in the collection. Quite of another type is 
Rupert, with flowers of moderate size, but of a, brilliant glossy 
crimson outside and inside. This variety would belong to a 
strain of uniformly dark flowers that a few years ago were very 
modest, in dimensions. They have now greatly increased in 
size, so- that they maintain their position with the other flowers. 
Hippeastrum (Amaryllis) Hermita: a good modern type. 
