Part 11

ARISTEA CYANEA.

Blue-flowered Aristea.

CLASS III. ORDER I.

TRIANDRIA MONOGYNIA. Three Chives. One Pointal.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

CALYX. Spathæ bivalves, laceræ, persistentes.

COROLLA, hexapetala, oblonga, æqualia, obcordata, persistentia, patens.

STAMINA. Filamenta tria, erecta, subulata. Antheræ sub-simplices, magnæ.

PISTILLUM. Germen inferum. Stylus filiformis, erectus. Stigma trifidum, concavum, reflexum.

PERICARPIUM. Capsula oblonga, triquetra, trilocularis, loculis compressis, trivalvis.

SEMINA plura, compressa, scabrida, sub-semicircularia.

EMPALEMENT. Sheath two valves, ragged, and, remaining.

BLOSSOM, of six petals, oblong, equal, inversely heart-shaped, remaining, spreading.

CHIVES. Three threads, upright, awl-shaped. Tips almost simple, and large.

POINTAL. Seed-bud beneath. Shaft thread-shaped and erect. Summit cut into three, concave and reflected.

SEED-VESSEL. Capsule oblong, three-sided, three cells, cells compressed, three valves.

SEEDS many, flat, rough, nearly semicircular.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

Aristea, foliis ensiformibus, radicalibus; floribus capitatis, cyaneis.

Aristea with sword-shaped leaves growing from the root; the flowers grow in heads, and are of a bright blue.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. A Valve of the Sheath spread open. 2. The Chives, Pointal, and Seed-bud, (magnified.) 3. A perfect Seed, (magnified.)

The Aristea is a native of the Cape of Good Hope, and has been described under various synonyms, by Plukenett as a Gramen, by Petiver as Bermudiana Capensis, and by Van Royen, Burmann, and Linnæus, as an Ixia. But although differing from Linnæus is against the fixed intention of this undertaking, where there is a possibility of avoiding it; yet in this instance of alteration he must have acquiesced, having undoubtedly never seen the plant himself. The blossom, seed-vessel, seeds, habit, root, and growth, of the plant, so totally differ from the character of Ixia, &c. that we have not hesitated, in accepting the name given it in the Hortus Kewensis; where, it is said to have been introduced, to that collection, by Mr. F. Masson in 1774; though no specific description is given of it; from which we may conjecture, it never flowered there. The figure here given, was taken from a plant which flowered at Messrs. Lee and Kennedy’s, in 1797. The Aristea being rather a delicate plant, requires an airy, warm situation in the greenhouse, flowering readily about the month of July, or August; requiring to be kept in a small pot, the soil a light loam. It propagates by seeds, and slips.

PLATE XI.

GLADIOLUS ROSEUS.

Rose-coloured Gladiolus.

CLASS III. ORDER I.

TRIANDRIA MONOGYNIA. Three Chives. One Pointal.