The plants we presume to be the nearest kindred of the 

 genus have been noticed in the article Aspidistra lurida 

 (fol. 628) of this publication ; beyond them we suspect 

 the direction points towards Drac^na and others of Jus- 

 sieu's Jsparagi. 



TupisTRA squalida was introduced into the hothouses of 

 this counti-y about ten years ago by Mr. Loddiges ; and is 

 said to belong to Amboyna. The technical name we have 

 applied to the species, on the publication of the genus in 

 Curtis's Magazine, had been suggested by a faded sample 

 of the inflorescence, and proves disparaging to the true ap^ 

 pearance of the blossom when fresh, in whicb state how- 

 ever it endui*es but for a short time, fading from a lively 

 French-grey to a sombre yellowish hue. 



Leaves much higher than the scape, of a bright sap- 

 green, membranous, nearly upright, stiflened by a midrib, 

 elongatedly lanceolate, closely nerved, deeply tapered down- 

 wards to a narrow channelled petiolelike base, l^ to 2 feet 



. high and from 4 to 5 inches broad where widest, all radical 

 with their bases compactly alternately and imbricately 

 ambient at the crown of the conical hardfleshed stoloni- 

 ferons rootstock. Scape radical, nearly cylindrical, rp- 

 clinedly ascending, robust, rigid, solid. Flowers in a 

 closish scattered spike without scent. Bractes membranous, 

 twin, lanceolate; one dose-pressed to the front of the 

 flower and equal to it in length ; the other interior close- ' 

 pressed to one side of the flower, of the same shape with, 

 but several times smaller than, that in front. Corolla as- 

 cending, firm and fleshy, hemispherically campanulate, 6- 

 cleft less than half way down ; limb spreading and faintly 

 bilabiate, segments obtuse recurved with a reflex border; 

 the middlemost of the three lowermost less than the otber„ 

 more pointed and. farther reflexed : the upper side of the 

 corolla is flattened and sunk by pressure against the axis of 

 the spike, and its sides rendered sharp and prominent. -^«- 

 thers smaWf sessile, peltately fixed to the base of the se^ 



' ments, bilocular, roundish facing inwards, whitish. Pw/rf 

 urceolately elongated, whitish, liigher than the uncleft por- 

 tion of the corolla. Style an obtusely S-comered pip^. 

 shaft several times, higher than the germen, but equal toit< 

 in diameter. Germen green, oblately rounded, even witfr* 

 out streak or fiirrow solid, 3-celIed with two pencilled 

 ovules attached to the base of each cell. 



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