Part 30

TRIANDRIA MONOGYNIA. Three Chives. One Pointal.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

CALYX. Spathæ bivalves, alternatæ, flores distinguentes, persistentes.

COROLLA. Petalum unicum e tubo sensim dilatatum in faucem compressam ringentem.

STAMINA. Filamenta tria, longa, tenuia, sublabio superiori. Antheræ acutæ.

PISTILLUM. Germen inferum. Stylus filiformis, situ et longitudine stamimun superiorum. Stigma trifidum, capillare, reflexum.

PERICARPIUM. Capsula subrotunda, trilocularis, trivalvis.

SEMINA plura, triangularia.

EMPALEMENT. Sheath of two valves, alternate, dividing the flowers, and abiding.

BLOSSOM. One petal, widening in the tube, flattened at the mouth, and gaping.

CHIVES. Three threads, long, thin, and placed under the upper lip of the blossom. Tips sharp.

POINTAL. Seed-bud beneath. Shaft thread-shaped, in the same place, and of the same length of the upper chives. Summit cut into three hair-like divisions, which are bent back.

SEED-VESSEL. Capsule nearly round, three cells, three valves.

SEEDS many, triangular.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

Antholyza corollæ labiis divaricatis; fauce compressa.

Antholyza with the lips of the blossom in various directions; the mouth flattened.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. The Empalement. 2. A Blossom cut open, to shew the insertion of the Chives. 3. The Pointal (natural size).

Although this species of Antholyza is not new in our gardens, yet has it been seen in flower but by few, as it blows so seldom; though the roots are by far the largest of any of the genus. The bulb from which this figure was taken, had received a little assistance from heat early in the season, and by that means was (apparently) brought into flower. It is a native of the Cape of Good Hope, has much the appearance of a common flag in the foliage, growing to the height of three feet, or more; requires the same earth as Ixias, propagates by the root, or seed, and flowers in the month of June; at which time a drawing was made from a plant then in bloom at the Hammersmith nursery.

PLATE XXXIII.

DIOSMA LATIFOLIA.

Broad-leaved Diosma.

CLASS V. ORDER I.

PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA. Five Chives. One Pointal.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

CALYX. Perianthium quinquepartitum; laciniis tenuibus, acutis, persistentibus; basi plana.

COROLLA. Petala quinque, ovata, obtusa, sessilia, erecto-patula.