

/ 



Every one will perceive the close resemblance of our 

 plant to Amaryllis equestris (miniata of the Flora peru- 

 viana) ; but on inspecting the interior of the tube of the 

 corolla, the whole of this in rutila will be found to be 

 completely smooth, while its mouth in equestris is always 



pubescent ; the 



segments 



are also narrower and 



longer in 



the present species, the stigmas far more deeply separated, 

 and the spathe dries quickly away, and does not remain 

 upright and long unaltered as in the other. More distinc- 

 tions will probably be detected on a comparison of the liv- 

 ing specimens of the two. They are natives of opposite 

 sides of the South American continent; equestris (miniata) 

 beinsr found in Peru, in woods and field-sides on the 

 Andees ; and is called by the Spanish colonists lucre de 

 montana, or mountain-sealing-wax, in allusion to the colour 

 of the flower. And it is said that where the bulb is cut, the 

 part on exposure to the air becomes vermilion ; and that 

 the juice is used as an ink for the signature of the name to 

 letters, having been found to acquire the same fine colour 

 when dry. These circumstances most probably belong also 

 to rutila ; the flower of which is scentless ; the vermilion 

 ,on the inside sparkling and streaked with deeper coloured 

 feathered lines; on the outside opaque suffused with pink 



green and yellow; 



the funnel or 



and tinged partially with 



throat within of a greenish white and six-rayed. 



The drawing was made from a bulb that flowered with 

 more of the same species in the dry-stove in Mi\ Griffin's 

 garden at South Lambeth, in March last. 



a A lower portion of the corolla cut through vertically on one side and 

 detached from the germen, to show the insertion of the stamens, and 

 smooth tube, i The pistil when dissected from the corolla. 



i 













