280 ON FLOWEKI^a PLANTS FEOM MADAGASCAB. 



thin and membranous in texture, with a long petiole and a 

 bright-green, crisped, lorate blade above a foot long, 2-3 in. broad, 

 cuneate at the base, with a distinct midrib, the vertical veins dis- 

 tinct, the cross bars fine and close. Peduncle reaching a length 

 of 2-3 feet. Spikes 2, cylindrical, simple, about 2 in. long ; 

 large bracts, like those of A. distachyum, entirely absent ; brac- 

 teoles 2-3 to each flower, minute, oblong. Stamens 6-8, longer 

 than the bracteoles ; filaments linear-subulate ; anthers minute, 

 black, globose. Carpels 3-4, shorter than the stamens in an early 

 stage of the flower. — Ankaratra mountains. Gathered previously 

 by Dr. Lyall, from whose specimens the above description of the 

 inflorescence and flower is taken. 



RnoDocoDON, Baker, genus novum Liliacearum. 



Perianth gamophyllous, campanulate, the six equal deltoid, perma- 

 nently erect, 1 -nerved segments much shorter than the campanu- 

 late tube. Stamens 6, obscurely biseriate, inserted low down in the 

 corolla-tube ; filaments filiform, about equalling in length the lan- 

 ceolate, erect, basifixed anthers, which do not reach to the summit of 

 the perianth-tube. Ovary 3-celled, globose, sessile ; ovules two in a 

 cell, erect, collateral ; style filiform, as long as the ovary ; stigma capi- 

 tate, obscurely tricuspidate. Fruit unknown, no doubt capsular. — A 

 bulbous caulescent herb, with subulate leaves, a slender scape, small 

 red, laxly racemose flowers, and peculiar small spurred bracts, like those 

 of some of the Urgineas. Comes in between Muscari and JJrginea. 



R. madagascabiensis, Baker. (Plate TILT.) 

 Bulb ovoid, under an inch in diameter, with white inner 

 and thin grey outer tunics. Leaves as many as 6-7 to a bulb, 

 subulate, glabrous, not seen fully developed. Scapes sometimes 

 two to a bulb, reaching a foot in length, slender, terete, fragile, 

 glabrous. Eaceme laxly 6-12-flowered, 1-2 in. long, the upper 

 flowers small and abortive ; pedicels erecto-patent or cernuous, 

 g-g in. long ; bracts minute, persistent, bright red, with a lanceo- 

 late or deltoid lamina and a curved ligulate spur with reflexed 

 edges, which in the lower bracts, but not in the upper, is longer 

 than the lamina. Perianth campanulate, \ in. long, whitish at 

 the base, bright red upwards ; segments with a single central 

 nerve, which is decurrent to the base of the tube. Anthers and 

 style each about half a line long. — Ankaratra mountains and Ibara 

 country. 



