Volume 4 — PLATE CCLV. MORÆA NORTHIANA. Northian Moræa.

CLASS III. ORDER I.

TRIANDRIA MONOGYNIA. Three Chives. One Pointal.

ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.

Corolla hexapetala; petala tria interiora patentia, angustiora. Stigma trifidum.

Blossom six petals; the three inner petals spreading, narrower. Summit three-cleft.

See Moræa tricolor. Pl. LXXXIII. Vol. II.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

Moræa scapo foliisque falcatis, glaberrimis, distichis; floribus terminalibus; petalis tribus exterioribus ovatis, concavis, pendulis, tribus interioribus sub-erectis, medio retrofractis, apicibus revolutis.

Moræa with the flower-stem and leaves scymitar-shaped, very smooth, pointing different ways; flowers terminal; the three outer petals egg-shaped, concave, hanging down, the three inner ones nearly erect, broke back about the middle, and rolled back at the ends.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. The whole plant in miniature.

2. The outer valve of the sheath.

3. The inner valve of the sheath.

4. The Seed-bud, Chives, and Pointal, as they stand in the flower.

5. The Pointal only, the Chives being removed.

About the year 1789 this very fine species of Moræa was introduced to our gardens by the late, elegantly tasted Mrs. North, lady to the Right Hon. the Lord Bishop of Winchester; to whose fervor and liberality in botanical pursuits we owe much of the present prevailing taste for the science. The plant was brought to England by the Hon. Mr. F. North, on his return from Portugal; the only remnant of a number, which he had procured from the gardens of the late Queen of Portugal; immediately on its arrival it was consigned, in a very sickly state, to the care of Messrs. Lee and Kennedy, Hammersmith, who had the good fortune to recover it.

It is a native of the Brazils, flowers about July or August, propagates itself by suckers, which it makes from the root, should be planted in light rich earth, and should be treated as a tender hot-house plant. The leaves grow frequently to the length of two feet, or more; forming the appearance of a large fan; the flower-stem proceeding from nearly the centre. The flowers surpass, in delicacy and beauty of pencilling, any of this very handsome tribe, and are as transitory as beautiful, their duration being but of six hours, at most. It seldom happens that more than one flower is open at a time; but the plant from which our drawing was made, in 1797, at the Right Hon. the Marquis of Blandford’s, then resident at Bill Hill, Berks, was in the highest perfection we have ever hitherto seen it.