Volume 1 — PLATE LIX. IXIA FISTULOSA. Hollow-leaved Ixia.

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, equal. Summits three, nearly upright, and spreading.

See Ixia reflexa. Plate XIV.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

Ixia foliis linearibus, fistulosis; floribus secundis, noctu fragrantes; bulbus campanulatus, margine acuto-fibroso.

Ixia with linear, hollow leaves; flowers pointing one way, and fragrant by night; bulb bell-shaped, the margin edged with sharp fibres.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. The outer spath of the Empalement. 2. The inner spath of the Empalement. 3. A Flower cut open. 4. The Pointal, and Chives. 5. The Pointal.

This Ixia is of a very delicate nature, the root being subject to rot soon after the flower decays, if not then removed from its pot, and dried; the flowers expand about four o’clock in the afternoon, and are so extremely fragrant that they are smelt at a considerable distance. For this plant, our gardens are indebted to the Dowager Lady De Clifford, who received the bulbs from the Cape of Good Hope in the year 1794. The drawing was made from a plant, which flowered last year at Messrs. Lee and Kennedy’s, Hammersmith, who had some of them in a present from her ladyship. Like other Ixias, it should be planted in light peat, and watered but seldom; its propagation is but slow, as seldom more than one new bulb is produced, upon the decay of the old one.

PLATE 59