The Garden Magazine, May, 1923 
189 
their inception have served as collecting and distributing cen¬ 
tres of plant material and have naturally had a leading part 
in building up the knowledge of the Australian flora the world 
enjoys to-day. They have sent plants far and wide and have 
played an enormous part in the creating and fostering of the 
garden spirit in the southern continent. The best of the floral 
gems of the tropics and of the Northern Hemisphere have been 
introduced and disseminated into Australian gardens. Some¬ 
day I will write about the gardens of Australia, and then 1 will 
try and do justice to these invaluable and rightly famous 
Botanic Gardens. When 1 visited these gardens and saw how 
splendidly they are patronized by the public, 1 ask myself time 
and time again, “Why has America no such flourishing insti¬ 
tutions so well established in the affections of the public? ” The 
only answer that suggests itself I refrain from writing down. 
In Sydney, the Mother City of Australia, the first Botanic 
Garden was established by Charles Fraser about 1828. The site 
includes that of the first plats of Wheat and other cereals and 
vegetables planted under the authority of Captain Phillip when 
he unfurled his flag at Sydney Cove on January 26, 1788, and 
■established the colony of New South Wales. For more than a 
century the Sydney Botanic Garden has been intimately bound 
up with the material welfare of Australia and is classic ground. 
Its area includes the site of the first farm, where Wheat was grown 
for the infant colony, where fruit trees of all kinds—Apples, 
Oranges, Olives, Grapes, Bananas—were first acclimatised, 
where it was shown that the Cotton and innumerable other 
economic plants could grow in New South Wales; while through 
the use of wardian cases and glasshouses it was the means of 
establishing and propagating valuable tropical economic plants 
for what is now Queensland and northern Australia. Natur¬ 
ally the garden has had ups and downs and its various directors 
have at times been hand pressed. For more than.half a century 
it has been well-stocked with a rich collection of the choicest 
plants from all quarters of the globe. 
In 1847, Charles Moore was appointed Superintendent and 
remained in control until 1896. Moore introduced many plants 
to cultivation, including Kentia Belmoreana and K. Fosteriana 
from Lord Howe Island in 1869. He was succeeded by the 
present Director, J. H. Maiden, F. R. S., doyen of Australian 
botanists, who has enlarged the activities of the gardens on all 
sides and made Sydney the headquarters of Australian botany. 
The only other garden I have space to mention now is that of 
Melbourne, established in 1845. It was remodelled with great 
skill and 30 acres were added by W. R. Guilfoyle, appointed 
Director in 1873. The site enjoys good soil, and the garden 
boasts a wonderful collection of plants zealously maintained 
by the present Director, J. Cronin. Melbourne is famous to 
garden-lovers for the association of the great Doctor (afterward 
Sir) Ferdinand von Muellerwhowas appointed Colonial Botanist 
to Victoria in 1852. Mueller travelled and collected extensively 
and added enormously to the knowledge of Australian flora. 
His writings are multitudinous and laid the foundation for the 
proper study of many important genera including that of 
Eucalyptus and Acacia. He had correspondents all over the 
world and distributed seeds and specimens far and wide. During 
his lifetime (he died in October, 1896,) his was the dominant 
figure in Australian botany. The herbarium he amassed at 
Melbourne is a monument to his industry and devotion to 
the science he so long adorned. 
BRINGING BRILLIANCE FROM THE TROPICS 
EDWIN C. POWELL 
The “Amaryllis” of American Garden and Greenhouse and Its Adaptability as an Indoor Plant 
H IPPEASTRUMS are tropical American bulbous plants 
usually known in gardens under the general name of 
Amaryllis, formerly fairly familiar but latterly regarded 
as “novelties.” Many of them have a noble dignity, 
and only the high price of the bulbs has prevented them from 
becoming very popular. But they are easily grown from seed, 
although the seed is not generally catalogued by seedsmen. 
One summer I procured a packet containing 25 seeds, planted 
them in a six-inch fern pot, covered the seed with broken half- 
rotted leaves, and then with a pane of glass; in a month I had 
23 seedlings ready to prick out into two-inch pots. Within a 
few weeks the seedlings are shifted into four-inch pots and in a 
few months into seven-inch pots, in which they come to flower 
in the spring or summer of the second year. In the greenhouse 
they are brought into bloom in 18 or 20 months after sowing the 
seed. 
Red—brilliant, intense and burning—is the characteristic 
color of the flowers, and a pure white is something of a novelty 
or rarity. When one appeared at a New York Show it created 
a sensation and the exhibitor said it was “the only white 
Amaryllis in America,” but in the greenhouses of the United 
States Department of Agriculture at Washington where Amaryl¬ 
lis has been “played with,” at least a select few white ones have 
flowered from time to time and probably white ones will 
occasionally appear in any large collection of hybrid seedlings. 
Though generally grown in a greenhouse, Hippeastrums can be 
grown with marked success in any ordinary dwelling by any one 
who learns how to handle them properly. 
M OST people are familiar with the old Johnsoni Amaryllis 
that produces three to five deep, dull red flowers on a 
stem, each segment with a white stripe down the keel. A very 
profuse bloomer, it withstands much abuse. It is the most 
popular single Amaryllis and is much prized for window gardens. 
But the Hippeastrums found in a few private collections, and 
now grown quite largely in California and Florida are much 
improved in size and color, and often produce flowers 10 to 12 
inches long and as large in diameter. Reds in various shades 
from pink to scarlet predominate, but hybridizers have been 
striving to secure white and light shades, until now many of the 
flowers are striped or splashed red and white. By crossing the 
lightest-colored flowers a fair proportion of light colored and 
striped or splashed blooms may be raised. 
So showy are the Amaryllis flowers that one plant in bloom 
always attracts attention; a half-dozen in the window blooming at 
one time creates a neighborhood sensation. More than 30,000 
people visited an Amaryllis show one March by the Department 
of Agriculture when 1700 plants in bloom were exhibited for a 
week. These were seedlings, produced in five years from 12 
plants, and every one was a worthy specimen. A few were 
three-year-old bulbs, but the majority were only 19 months 
from the seed! 
T HE Hippeastrums are peculiar plants. After a period of 
rest given them in the cellar in late fall and early winter, the 
flower scape or stalk appears. They should then be brought 
into a moderately warm room and given sufficient light and 
