1143 



4 



" i' 



/". 



TULIPA Oculus Solis ; rflr. Persica. 



; 



Persian Su7i^s Eye Tulip. 



*- 



+ 



> 





IIEXANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 



Nat. ord. LiliacejG. 



TULIPA. Suprd, vol. 2.fol. 127; et vol. Z.fol 204. 



-.1 



T, Oculus solis; integumento bulbi intiis lanato, foliis 4 subciliatis caule 

 floreque glaberrimis, labris conniventibus stigmatum villoso-fimbriatis. 

 Ker, suprdy vol S.foL 204, with the synonyms. 



/3. Persica ; foliis latioribus magis glaucis, perianthio maximo, integumento 

 bulbi intiis hirsute. * 





We are tempted to figure this variety, not only for the 

 sake of its great beauty and rarity, but also as a form not 

 less remarkable for its large flowers than for its native 

 country, and the peculiarity of the integuments of its roots. 



The Agen, or Sun's Eye Tulip, is singular in the genus 

 deep black eye, or base to the perianthium in the 



for 



side, which is bordered by a margin of yellow interposed 



red of the rest of the pen 



between 



and the 



anthium : when expanded beneath the influence of a bright 

 sun, the eff"ect of this is surprisingly beautiful; the flowers 

 rarely open under less favourable circumstances. Hitherto 

 it has been only discovered wild in the south of Europe, 

 about Agen, and the village of Brusquet in Provence 

 But the variety now represented having been collected 

 by Sir Henry Willoch in Persia, and transmitted to the 

 Horticultural Society, another and less suspicious habitat 

 has been discovered for it. It was received in 1826 ; and 



plant which flowered in the Chiswick Garden, in 



fro ^ 



March 1827, our drawing was taken 



The roots of the common Europ 



kind are densely 



clothed with wool beneath the outer integuments 



pro 



vision. 



would seem, bv which Nature seeks to guard 



