358 
The Garden Magazine, February, 1924 
now universally cultivated in tropical countries. Most of the species 
have a short stem bearing a rosette of leaves, often fleshy and chan¬ 
nelled on the upper surface, their bases fitting closely together so that 
the whole plant forms a sort of funnel which is usually full of water. 
The leaves may or may not be armed along their margins, are often 
pleasingly mottled and barred with different hues, and in some the 
upper leaves are brilliantly colored. The inflorescence usually rises 
out of the center of the funnel and is furnished with closely imbricated 
bracts, often brightly colored, which add to the conspicuousness of the 
flowers. Among the more common members of this family in hot¬ 
houses are species of Bromelia, Billbergia, Aechmea, Tillandsia and 
Ananas. The Pineapple is among the finest of tropical fruits, and 
other members of the family are valuable fibre-yielding plants. 
Bringing the Amaryllis to Perfection 
N BULBOUS and tuberous plants the tropics are not rich, since 
these plants are adapted to live where climatic extremes obtain. 
Nevertheless types with such underground storehouses do occur 
in the tropics and from South America our gardens have obtained 
several conspicuous ornaments. The chaste Eucharis-lily ( Eucharis 
grandijtora), with dark lustrous leaves and pure white flowers with erect 
chalice and spreading segments, is one of the finest greenhouse flower¬ 
ing plants. There are several other species, all natives of Colombia, 
but the above is the best known and also the finest. 
The greatest gift of tropical America among true bulbous plants to 
gardens has been the various species of Hippeastrum, from which by 
hybridization and selection has been evolved the marvellous race of 
plants popularly known as Amaryllis. Quite a number of species of 
Hippeastrum are known, some for more than a century, but though 
nearly all have been employed by the hybridist only a few have proved 
specially valuable. The first introduced seems to have been H. reginae 
which was growing in England in 1725. In 1777 H. reticulatum and in 
1769 H. vittatum were introduced and another, H. equestre, is said to 
have been introduced into England from the West Indies by William 
Pitcairn in 1778. In 1814 H. psittacinum, and in 1821 H. rutilum 
flowered in England, and in 1866 the beautiful H. pardinum was sent 
home by Veitch's collector, Richard Pearce, from Peru; later from 
Brazil came H. aulicum. A remarkable species named H. solandrae- 
florum with a greenish white tube and almost regular segments was 
introduced about 1820, but most valuable of all has proved H. Leopoldii 
which flowered for the first time in England in 1870. The flowers of 
the last named species are large and widely expanded, the tube is 
short and the segments broad and of much substance, and as a parent 
this species has exerted the most influence in the production of the 
race our gardens enjoy to-day. 
The first cross made was between the species H. vittatum and H. 
reginae by a Mr. Johnson, a shoemaker, or, according to others a watch¬ 
maker, of Lancashire in 1811, and the hybrid received the name of H. 
Johnsonii. In the same year Dean Herbert, an enthusiastic horti¬ 
culturist and churchman, made the same cross and named it H. regio- 
vittatum. The good Dean’s name is indissolubly associated with our 
garden Amaryllis. He labored long at the genus and assiduously culti¬ 
vated and experimented with every species he could procure, from time 
to time publishing the results of his investigations in the periodicals 
of the period devoted to horticulture and botany. He did magnificent 
work in plant-breeding in many fields, and in doing so incurred no small 
amount of reproach from his contemporaries for tampering with 
nature. Dean Herbert is indeed entitled to be called the “Father 
of plant-hybridizing.” As early as 1824 the Dean recorded thirty- 
five hybrid Hippeastrums, thirty of which had been raised by himself. 
The first hybrid H. Johnsonii or H. regio-vittatum was remarkable 
for the length of time it retained its character under cultivation and 
its potentiality over other species and varieties when used as a breeder 
greatly influenced the offspring. In 1850 Messrs. Garraway & Sons of 
Bristol flowered a plant obtained by crossing H. aulicum with the 
hybrid H. Johnsonii which they named H. Acramannii piilcherrima. 
T his was undoubtedly the finest hybrid raised up to that date, and is 
of great interest as one of the parents used by Messrs. Veitch some 
years later in the production of the first Hippeastrum raised at Chelsea. 
The work of improving this flower was carried on for thirty-five years 
by Messrs. Veitch, and their success is shown by the some two hundred 
certificates of merit awarded the beautiful forms produced by them. 
Soon after the appearance of H. Acramannii piilcherrima, Louis van 
Houtte and other horticulturists in Belgium and in France took up the 
culture of these plants and produced many fine seedlings remarkable 
for brilliance of coloring though usually lacking form, having narrow, 
pointed petals of unequal size. The Leyden house of de Graaff after¬ 
ward surpassed van Houtte’s productions especially with one named 
H. Graveana. Later this plant crossed with a dark form of H. psitta¬ 
cinum produced the well-known H. Empress of India, still in cultivation. 
I he advent of H. pardinum in 1866 with flowers nearly 7 inches across, 
each with a very short corolla-tube, broad, recurving and spreading 
segments, spotted all over with vermilion on a yellowish ground as 
in the skin of a leopard, gave a new impetus to the cultivation of Hip¬ 
peastrums. Yet with all its fine qualities H. pardinum did not realize 
expectations, and with the introduction of H. Leopoldii it was virtually 
discarded as a parent. The work of the breeders mentioned above has 
been supplemented by those of many firms, notably Messrs. Kerr & 
Sons of Liverpool and such amateurs as Sir George Holford and Sir 
George Kendrick and many others, with the result that our gardens 
now possess a race of plants with gorgeous colored flowers of every hue 
and shade of red, crimson, almost pink, and white—flowers of perfect 
form and wondrous substance. 
Although it has apparently had nothing to do in the production of 
our garden Amaryllis, mention must be made of H. procerum introduced 
into France from Brazil about 1863, which from the color of the flowers 
is called the Blue Amaryllis. It is a very handsome species and often 
goes by the name of Empress of Brazil. 
This account of true bulbous plants may well close by mention of 
the old Jacobaea Lily ( Sprekelia formosissima), native of Mexico and 
known in European gardens for centuries. It is figured by Gerard 
in his Paradisus 71 (1629) and reached England by way of Spain 
somewhere about 1 590. 
The Most Beautiful of Begonias 
MONG tuberous plants we owe our present-day race of Gloxinias 
to Brazil. These are not true Gloxinias but Sinningias and ap¬ 
pear to have been derived by'crossing and selecting from 5 . speciosa, 
which was introduced into England about 1817, and forms of it like 
var. macrophylla whose advent was about 1841. This species has 
hanging purple flowers spotted and striped within the corolla tube. By 
patient selection the races with upright flowers and with flowers at right 
angles to the peduncle, and of all colors, has been brought into being. 
The first hybrid is said to have been with 5 . guttata, a leafy upright 
plant with white spotted with red flowers, but neither this species nor 
the hybrid appears to have had any marked influence on our present-day 
race of “Gloxinias.” The true Gloxinias have no tubers and differ some¬ 
what in the structure of their flowers. It is doubtful if any are now 
in cultivation in North America. 
The most important race of tuberous garden plants we owe to 
South America is the Begonia. The genus itself is universally 
distributed in the tropical and warm-temperate regions of the earth, 
but from the Andes came the species from which have been evolved 
that most popular section known to gardeners as Tuberous-rooted 
Begonias. The story of the production of this most valuable race is 
a fascinating one but too long to be told in detail here. Seven species, 
all natives of the Peruvian Andes, have been employed in the produc¬ 
tion of the modern summer-flowering Tuberous Begonias. Two of 
these ( B. Clarkei and B. cinnaharina) were introduced into England 
by E. G. Henderson and five ( B. boliviensis, B. Pearcei, B. rosaejlora, 
B. Veitchii and B. Davisii) by Messrs. Veitch, the first four by their 
collector Richard Pearce in 1863-66. The flowers of all are shades of 
red, except B. Pearcei which has bright yellow flowers. The first hy¬ 
brid Begonia was raised by Messrs. Veitch’s employee, John Seden, 
the result of a cross between B. boliviensis and an unnamed Andean 
species. It flowered in 1869 and was named X B. Sedenii. Working 
on the seven species mentioned, some eighteen hybrids of sterling merit 
and many seminal forms were raised by Messrs. Veitch and the founda¬ 
tion of the Begonias of to-day was well and truly laid. Since then 
many hybridists and breeders in all parts of the world have been 
engaged on the work of improvement and the result is familiar to every 
gardener and plant-lover the world over. 
The mating by John Heal, also an employee of Messrs. Veitch, of 
certain Tuberous Begonias with the curious peltate-leaved B. socotrana, 
native of the forbidding and barren island of Socotra in the Indian 
Ocean, resulted in a race of winter-flowering Begonias of great merit 
but not easy to grow. This same B. socotrana mated with the South 
African B Dregei, by Lemoine, gave to the world X B.Gloire de Lorraine, 
perhaps the most all round useful and beautiful Begonia ever raised 
—but that is another story. 
Horticulture's Debt to Pearce 
ND now this tale of our indebtedness to the tropics of the New 
World must end. It is scrappy, incomplete, and disjointed; but 
it is difficult to compress into a few pages what a thick volume could 
not properly set forth. Very many men have labored and given their 
