«. 



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accompanying figure was taken were sent from Chile by 

 Mr. Miers to Mr. Place, by whom they were presented to 

 the Horticultural Society, in whose Garden our drawing 

 was made in June 1827. 



It is a hardy greenhouse plant, remaining in flower for 

 several weeks, and remarkable for the intense bright blue' 

 of its nodding blossoms. It requires to be grown in light 

 sandy loam, to be well watered when coming into flower, 

 and after the blossoming is over to be kept dry. , 



p 



Mr. Don has proposed to separate this plant from 

 Conanthera, chiefly, as we understand him, because of 

 the segments of its flower cohering into a campanulate * 



tube, on which account it differs from Conanthera as j 



Hyacinthus does from Scilla. But it appears to us, not- 

 withstanding the truth of this statement, that in this par- 

 ticular case the characters depended upon by Mr. Don are 

 overruled by other and far more important peculiarities ^ 



common to both plants. There is, we presume, no doubt, 

 although the seeds have not been examined, of this genus 

 belonging to Asphodeleae. We have, therefore, in a very 

 natural group of plants, remarkable for the great uni- 

 formity of their structure, two species differing from all 

 previously discovered in the very remarkable circum- 

 stances of their pedicels having no articulation, their 

 ovarium being partly inferior, the alternate segments of 

 the perianthium being fringed at the margin, and the 

 anthers conniving into a cone. These very unusual cha- 

 racters seem to us to possess powers of combination 

 which wholly overrule others of so secondary a nature 

 as the greater or less cohesion of the segments of the 

 perianthium, and to indicate a genus of plants too nearly 

 allied in nature to be broken up by slight modifications 

 of structure. Whether the Echeandia of Ortega is really 

 distinct from Conanthera, is another question, which can 

 only be determined by the inspection of authentic speci- 

 mens ; these we have not, the good fortune to possess ; 

 and the figure and description in Link and Ottos^ Abbil- 

 dungen neuer und seltener gewachse do not enable us to 

 settle the point. 



A bulbous-rooted plant, a span high, and smooth. 

 Leaves linear, acuminate, spreading, the length of the 

 scape. Scape round, loosely panicled. Bractca subulate. 





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