stem of maura is said to yield a strongly saccharine juice. 

 We suspect that it is a plant requiring the growth of a 

 considerable number of years before it flowers. In Mr. Grif- 

 fin's Collection there is a specimen, at this time little less 

 than five feet high, which has not yet flowered. It thrives 

 best in peat-earth, and requires no greater degree of warmth 

 than will prevent the frost affecting it. When the flowers 

 are terminal and sessile, the upper leaves extend beyond 

 them ; but when these, as in our specimen, are elevated 

 upon a common peduncle or stem, they generally extend 

 beyond the leaves. Thunberg found it flowering in April 

 and May on the sides of the hills near False Bay. The green 

 part of the flower dries yellow. 



a A flower dissected to show the position of stamens and pistil, b A 

 spalhe disposed so as to show both valves, c Shows that portion of the 

 g( linen which is detached within the flower wd superior, as distinguished 

 from the lower portion, which is grown together with it and inferior. 



1 







flursery of Messrs. Lee and Kennedy; by whose liberal 

 communication of them, we are enabled to present our 

 readers with the first figure from the living plant yet pub- 

 lished. 



The genus, as far as it is yet known, belongs wholly to the 

 neighbourhood of the Cape of Good Hope; unless indeed 

 Tapeinia should at last be found to be of it. The species ap- 

 pear to bear the same relation to the rest of the Ensatse, that 

 Dka^jenAj Yucca, and their kindred frutescent genera, do to 

 the herbaceous Liiiacese. Botanists vary as to the situation 

 they ascribe to the gcrmen. In the present species the 

 upper fourth part of that organ is evidently detached from 

 and within the tube of the corolla, and consequently supe- 

 rior; while the remainder is as plainly grown to and united 

 with the tube, and therefore inferior. In corymbosa it is 

 simply inferior. We mean to be precise on this point, as we 

 stand so far in contradiction to some very eminent botanists. 



In the four species known to us a peculiar sameness per- 

 vades the foliage of them all ; but the reverse is as remark- 

 able in the bloom. Fruticosa and partita are not yet known 

 to be in our gardens. The latter is curious for its hexape- 

 taloid corolla, with long linear-spatulate segments; and vrJs 

 first recorded in the Annals of Botany (v. L p. 237) from 

 very perfect spontaneous specimens in Mr. G. Hibbert's 

 Herbarium. Monsieur Ventenat (in Dec. nov. gen. plant. 1.) 

 has separated corymbosa under the generic name of Nivenia: 

 a separation in our judgment, to say the least of it, most 

 inexpedient. On the authority of Monsieur Brugui^res, the 





