Part 42

EMPALEMENT as in the female flower.

BLOSSOM as in the female flower.

CHIVES. Threads as in the female flower, but longer, and thinner. Tips linear, channelled, upright, and large.

POINTAL. Seed-bud the same as in the female, but smaller. Shaft and summit like the female, but smaller.

SEED-VESSEL is abortive.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

Musa spadice erecto; floribus capitatis; spathis confertis, coccineis, maximis, apicibus luteis.

Plantain-tree with an upright fruit-stalk; flowers growing in heads; sheaths crowded together, scarlet, very large, points yellow.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. The upper lip of the blossom, shewn in front, as cut off close to the seed-bud. 2. The same, shewing the hinder parts, with the three small claws on the border. 3. The honey-cup, which forms the lower lip of the blossom. 4. The seed-bud, chives, style, and summit, of a female hermaphrodite flower. 5. A seed-bud cut obliquely, to expose the situation character of the seeds. 6. The chives, seed-bud, shaft, and summit, of a male hermaphrodite flower.

The honour of having introduced this supremely beautiful plant, pertains to, Thomas Evans Esq. of Stepney; a gentleman to whose zeal for the introduction of new plants our stoves are of late much beholden; he having received it, amongst many others, about the year 1792 from China, where, as well as in Cochin-China, Sumatra, Java, &c. it is very commonly found. Our figure was taken, in part, from a plant which flowered at James Vere’s, Esq. Kensington Gore, last December, and partly, from one in blossom about the same time, at the Hon. Lady Archer’s, Ham Common. The Musa Coccinea grows to the height of about three, or four feet before it blows, and without question, has no rival but Strelitzea Regina in the hothouse, where its brilliancy, tends in some degree, to dispel the gloom of winter, for at least three months. It increases itself by suckers, which are thrown up in abundance from a vigorous plant; may be taken off at any time, and will arrive at a flowering size in twelve months; if planted in rich earth, and kept growing in pine heat, or on a strong hotbed.

PLATE XLVIII.

IXIA BULBIFERA. Var: flore luteo.

Bulb-bearing Ixia. Var: yellow-flowered.

CLASS III. ORDER I.

TRIANDRIA MONOGYNIA. Three Chives. One Pointal.

ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.

COROLLA 6-petala, patens, æqualis. Stigmata tria, erectiusculo patula.

BLOSSOM six petals, spreading, and equal. Summits three, nearly upright, and spreading.

See IXIA REFLEXA, Plate XIV.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

Ixia foliis falcatis, glabris, scapo brevioribus, axillis bulbiferis; floribus alternis, luteis.

Ixia with scimitar-shaped leaves, smooth, and shorter than the flower-stem, bearing bulbs at their insertion into the stalk; flowers alternate, and yellow.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. The Empalement. 2. A Flower cut open, with the Chives attached. 3. The Shaft, Summit, and Seed-bud, (magnified).

The singular sporting of Nature in the Ixia bulbifera is not uncommon; its viviparous character (if it may be so called) constitutes a specific difference in many genera; Lilium, Lysimachia, &c. partake of it. The bulbs produced from the stem blow the second year, whereas those from seeds do not till the third. The flowers of this variety are the first that open, amongst the numerous species yet introduced, of this extensive genus; they are of a brilliant yellow, and seldom expand more than one at a time. The usual treatment of other Cape Ixias is suitable for this. The drawing was made at Messrs. Lee and Kennedy’s, in the month of March 1798, they having introduced it about the year 1784.

PLATE XLIX.

MALPIGHIA CRASSIFOLIA.