of the genus, Nerine sarniensis, he alluded to the story of how this South African species arrived on the island of Guernsey in the English Channel. It is said that a ship carrying boxes of the bulbs of this species destined for the Netherlands was shipwrecked on Guernsey. The boxes of bulbs were washed up on the island and the bulbs became established and multiplied around the coast. Herbert eventually recognised nine species. At that time Amaryllis (and hence Nerine) were placed in the family Amaryllideae, following the classification of de Candolle (1813). Herbert's main interests were in the taxonomy of amaryllids, publishing a monograph on this in 1837, considering Amaryllideae as one of seven suborders of Amaryllidaceae. He then further subdivided this suborder into groups, placing Nerine and Amaryllis together with twelve other genera into the Amaryllidiformes. In his extensive treatment of Nerine he divided the nine species he recognised into two sections, Regulares and Distortae, of which only N. humilis and N. undulata are still in use. He had also begun a breeding program and described seven hybrids he had raised. His enthusiasm for the genus is evident in that he chose to illustrate the front of the book with one of his hybrids, N. mitchamiae (see illustration). New species continued to be described so that by the time Traub published his monograph in 1967, he identified 30 species. Other authors, including Norris (1974) and Duncan (2002), have identified 31 and 25 species respectively. At one stage 53 species were described. Snijman and Linder (1996), who used a cladistic analysis of 33 characteristics and chromosome number, reduced this to 23, assigning many of these species to varietal status. They considered Nerine to be characterised by zygomorphic flowers with attenuated tepals and crisped margins. Phylogeny In the APG IV system (2016), the genus Nerine is placed in the subfamily Amaryllidoideae of a broadly defined family Amaryllidaceae. Within the subfamily, Nerine is placed in the Southern African tribe Amaryllideae. The phylogenetic relationships of the Amaryllideae have been investigated through molecular analysis of DNA combined with morphological data. This cladistic analysis has demonstrated that Nerine belongs to a monophyletic group forming subtribe Strumariinae. The members of this clade all originate from South Africa and often have prostrate leaves, fused stamens forming a tube towards the base of the flower, dehiscent fruit, and seeds with a well developed seed coat and chlorophyll.