4. The Seed-bud, Shaft and Summit, magnified.
No Genus of Plants claims our notice, for its beauty, more than Geranium, and this species, certainly, ranks amongst the foremost. It is a native of the Cape of Good Hope, and we believe only to be found in the Clapham Collection; where, our figure was taken in April this year, from a plant, the bulb or root of which had been received the preceding autumn. It is nearly the only one, amongst twenty-two species of the tuberous kind, all having irregular petalled blossoms and tubular cups, of which we possess drawings, that has seven fertile chives; the greater number have two, four, or five. It appears to flourish under the treatment given it by Mr. Allen, which is, by keeping it in sandy peat, on a shelf, very dry, in the green-house. The propagation appears to be the same for this, as the other tuberous kinds, that is, by the root.[Pg 97]
PLATE CLXIX.
CRINUM GIGANTEUM.
Gigantic Asphodel-Lily.
CLASS VI. ORDER I.
HEXANDRIA MONOGYNIA. Six Chives. One Pointal.
ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.
Corolla supra, infundibuliformis, sexpartita, æqualis; filamenta tubi fauci inserta; semina ad basin corollarum, vivipara.
Blossom above, funnel-shaped, six-parted, equal; threads inserted into the mouth of the tube; seeds at the base of the blossoms, viviparous.