Volume 3 — PLATE CLXXVII. IXIA PUNCTATA. Dotted flowered Ixia.

CLASS III. ORDER I.

TRIANDRIA MONOGYNIA. Three Chives. One Pointal.

ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.

Corolla 6-partita, patens, æqualis.

Stigmata 3, erectiusculo-patula.

Blossom 6 divisions, spreading, equal.

Summits three, nearly upright, spreading.

See Ixia reflexa, Pl. XIV. Vol I.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

Ixia foliis linearibus, scapo vaginantibus; scapus geniculatus, subtriflorus; laciniis corollæ obovatis, lineato-punctatis, purpureis.

Ixia with linear leaves sheathing the stem; flower-stem jointed, mostly three flowered; segments of the blossom inversely egg-shaped, dotted in lines, and purple.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. The two valves of the sheath.

2. A Blossom cut open, with the Chives attached.

3. The Seed-bud, Shaft, and Summits; a division of one of the summits magnified.

This curious Ixia was introduced from the Cape of Good Hope, in the year 1800, by G. Hibbert, Esq. and is, we believe, in the possession of no other in this kingdom. It is a tender bulb, flowering about April, or May, and appears, either by the bulb, or seed, to be slow of increase. The bulb, from which our figure was taken, was planted in light, sandy peat earth.