Gladiolus with lance-shaped leaves, nerved and smooth; flower-stem mostly three-flowered, longer than the leaves; blossom rather bell-shaped, of a pale purple, the segments nearly equal, with the summits two-cleft.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. The Sheaths of the Empalement.
2. A Flower spread open, with the Chives attached.
3. The Seed-bud, Shaft, and Summits, one Summit detached and magnified.
The Bell-flowered Gladiolus, was amongst the number of those imported from Holland, in the year 1794, by Messrs. Lee and Kennedy, Hammersmith; when they partook of that large collection, brought to Haarlem by a Frenchman; who had been long resident at the Cape of Good Hope, where he had cultivated most of the bulbs prior to his bringing them to Europe. Nothing particular is required for the management of this, more than the most common of the Genus, from the Cape. It flowers in May, and increases by the root; the seeds rarely ripen.[Pg 180]
