Volume 6 — PLATE CCCLXIX.

EUCOMIS PURPUREOCAULIS.

Purple-stalked Eucomis.

CLASS VI. ORDER I.

HEXANDRIA MONOGYNIA. Six Chives. One Pointal.

ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.

Corolla infera, 6-partita, persistens. Filamenta nectario adnata.

Corolla beneath, 6-parted, persistent. Chives conjoined to the base of the corolla, forming a nectary.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

Eucomis, scapo clavato, foliis multifariis expansis orbiculato-spatulatis.

Eucomis, with a clavated scape, leaves pointing many ways expanded orbicular-spatula-shaped.

Descriptio. Radix ut in affinibus. Folia 5-7, multifaria, expansa, demum prostrata, orbiculato-spatulata, vel subinde multo angustiora, viridia, obsolete sulcato-lineata et lucida, marginibus minute cartilagineis, glabriusculis; subtus pallidiora, lucidiora, magisque sulcata. Scapus claviformis, perbrevis, crassus, atro-purpureus; intra flores valde contractus, viridis, purpureoque punctatus. Flores spicati, conferti, sessiles, sæpe adscendentes, unibracteati. Bracteæ imæ obcuneatæ, subrecurvæ, submembranaceæ, et sæpe purpurascentes; sensim minores; summæ longiores, lineari-lanceolatæ, purpureo-marginatæ, steriles; in coronam foliolorum perelegantem supra flores collectæ. Corolla hexapetaloidea, petalis subæqualibus, lineari-oblongis, vix attenuatis, viridibus. Filamenta 6, basi petalorum valde connata, subulata, compressa; superne incurvata. Antheræ flavescentes; post florescentiam fuscæ, pendulæ, ad apices petalorum vix attingentes. Germen sulcato-triangulare. Stylus flexuoso-adscendens, teres, vix subulatus, filamentis multo brevior. Stigma nullum sive inconspicuum.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

We find no account of this fine plant in any publication we have consulted: it is closely allied to Eucomis regia, but differs sufficiently from that species in the shape of its leaves, and the smoothness of their margins. It is a green-house plant, and was lately introduced from the Cape by G. Hibbert, Esq. from a plant in whose collection our drawing was taken in the month of March.