Seeds many, nearly round.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
Gladiolus, foliis ensiformibus, costatis; petalis lateralibus latissimis.
Gladiolus, with sword-shape, ribbed leaves; the side petals of the blossom the broadest.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. The two Sheaths of the Empalement, with the Chives, detached from the Petals, as they stand in the Blossom, and apparently attached to each other; with the natural position of the Pointal.
2. The Chives, Pointal, and Seed-bud; one of the divisions of the Summit magnified.
This species of Gladiolus, although so scarce with us, is certainly one of the most common found near Cape Town; and, notwithstanding its extreme beauty, has been overlooked by most collectors; who, from its great frequency, have generally considered it as forming, undoubtedly, part of every collection of exotics. It is of an extreme delicate nature, and overmuch wet easily destroys it; differing from most Cape bulbs, in requiring a light loamy earth, and the assistance of a dry stove, to make it flower well; which it will do by such aid, about May, or June; seldom producing seeds, and propagating but slowly by the root. From the fugitive character of this plant, it is difficult to ascertain the first cultivator; for although it does not appear amongst the Gladiolus in the Hortus Kewensis, it must undoubtedly have come into that immense collection at different periods, but never flowered; which is the reason we do not find it there described, which has been done by Linnæus, in his Species Plantarum, under the name it here bears; as well as by Plukenet, in his Phyto graphia, and others under various synonims. This figure was taken from a plant that flowered at Messrs. Lee and Kennedy’s in 1796.[Pg 38]
PLATE 8
