Who Has Amaryllis Treatae?
In looking over the numbers of Harpers Monthly for 1877, I chanced upon what seemed to be Mrs. Treat’s original description of the Amaryllis that bears her name. After describing her manner of exploring secluded nooks along the banks of streams, and mentioning several plants observed, she says: “But my delight culminated in finding a beautiful Amaryllis lily growing amid the dense thicket in the soft, mucky soil along the banks of the stream. The leaf is much broader and longer than the old form of Amaryllis Atamasco, L. and the flower finer and larger, and blooms some two months earlier. Some of the largest leaves measure two feet in length, and the largest flowers five inches across, and five inches in length. It commences to bloom in January, and continues in flower till March. It bears transplanting to common garden soil, where it does not depreciate in size of leaf or flower. ” Last year I sent some three hundred bulbs to the Botanic garden at Harvard to have it tested, and the di