REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. The whole plant, upon a diminished scale.
2. The Empalement.
3. A Blossom cut open, with the chives remaining.
4. The Seed-bud, Shaft, and Summits.
This very handsome Antholyza, which is seen so seldom to flower, in this kingdom, has been long an inhabitant of our gardens. So long ago as 1759, it is said to have been cultivated by Miller; and from the firm and hardy character of the root, we should question its having been since that period, ever, like many others of this natural order, left to us. The unfrequency of its flowering has, perhaps, occasioned the inattention, which is in general shewn to its cultivation, though most collectors possess the bulbs, few have seen their flowers. Our figure was taken in the month of July, this year, from a plant in the collection of T. Evans, Esq. Stepney. It is increased from the roots, which should be removed from the pots in July, and replanted the end of October. We have not been able to procure any certain data on which to give directions to insure its flowering; but the plant in question was planted in a very large pot, the earth was a compound of light peat one part, stiff loam one part, and old rotten dung one part. It has been thought by some, that the Antholyza we have figured in the Botanist’s Repository, Plate XXXI. was the A. Æthiopica of Linnæus, &c; but, we have given it as a broad-leaved variety of the A. ringens of that author, as we have a drawing of the Narrow leaved Var: taken from a living plant, to which, as well as to our present figure, it much affines; and, we are led to think, natural order would not be much violated, if we had treated them all as varieties of one species.[Pg 268]
