Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1921 edition. Excerpt: ...when grown from seed. On the whole, it is perhaps a little easier to get valuable new varieties of crinums by crossing and selection than with most other bulbous plants, especially the lilies--although there are notable exceptions among the California lilies, some of which cross very readily. Crinum seeds are very curious, in that they vary enormously in size, almost always, even in the same capsule. The pale-greenish bulblike seeds with irregular corrugations may vary from the size of a pea to that of an English walnut. When placed in a graded sequence they present a curious contrast. Yet the plants grown from the smallest seeds are likely to be quite as large and of the same appearance and quality as those grown from the mammoth ones. The seeds of the crinum thus funish a unique link between seeds, buds, and bulbs, suggesting the properties of all these combined. Another peculiarity of the seeds is that they contain so much nutriment and moisture that they may sprout and grow, making plants of considerable size, without access to any moisture except that contained within the seed itself. I have known them to sprout when laid on a shelf, or in envelopes, away from the light and entirely dry; also when sent to me by mail from Australia they sometimes started as seeds and arrived here in envelopes as small growing plants. The crinums have been under cultivation for a long time, but there are many species that have not been experimented with, and the opportunity to introduce new forms from the tropics, A HYBRID CRINUM These enormous, fragrant flowers produced by a seven-pound bulb are one of the results of crossing several tropical species with our native Florida species. The flowers have the size, beauty, and fragrance of the tropical...