Leaves by fours, linear, pointed, with a recurved base and an ascending point, ciliated, and shining.
Flowers terminate the branches in bunches: footstalks purple, and furnished with two small opposite floral leaves at their base.
Empalement four-leaved: leaflets lance-shaped, pointed, and pressed to the blossom.
Blossom large, swelled, of an ovate form, smooth, and shining; narrowed at the mouth, which is of a pale flesh-colour: the segments of the border are equal, spreading, flesh-coloured, and of a deep red in the centre.
Chives. Eight hair-like threads. Tips two-horned at the base, and within the blossom.
Pointal. Seed-bud turban-shaped, furrowed, with honey-cups at their base. Shaft thread-shaped, and within the blossom. Summit four-cornered.
Native of the Cape of Good Hope.
Flowers from April till August.
REFERENCE.
|
1. The Empalement. 2. The Chives and Pointal, one tip magnified. [Pg 120]3. Seed-bud and Pointal, summit magnified. 4. Seed-bud magnified. |