Volume 3 — PLATE CLV. IXIA POLYSTACHIA. Many-spiked Ixia.

CLASS III. ORDER I.

TRIANDRIA MONOGYNIA. Three Chives. One Pointal.

ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.

Corolla 6-partita, patens, equalis. Stigmata 3, erectiusculo-patula.

Blossom 6-divisions, spreading, equal. Summits three, nearly upright and spreading.

See Ixia reflexa, Vol. I. Plate XIV.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

Ixa foliis linearibus; scapo spicis pluribus; floribus oppositis, spicatis; corollis albidis.

Ixia with linear leaves; flower-stem with many spikes; flowers grow opposite and spiked; blossoms white.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. The two sheaths of the Empalement.

2. A flower cut open to shew the situation of the Chives.

3. The Pointal natural size.

This is the plant which is figured by Miller, in the coloured plates which correspond with the dictionary, 104, t. 155. fig. 2. under the specific title it here bears; and, says the Kew Catalogue, was cultivated by him 1757. Since this is the first which bore the title of Polystachia, and being of the colour we think is mostly primitive in flowers, we have given it the preference; and shall confider all the other 18, (of which we have drawings and decidedly of this species) as varieties from this. The flowers of this species are more lasting than most of the others; and are in general, especially this sort, very hardy. It propagates freely by the root and by seed. Our drawing was made at the nursery, Hammersmith, last year, in the month of May.