14 
The plant has blossomed twice in the Botanic Garden at Ber- 
lin in the months of June and July in a hot-house, with a 
temperature of from 58° to 60°. A soil composed of equal 
parts of sand and decayed wood or leaves seems most agree- 
able to it. It may be propagated by suckers struck in a hot- 
bed. This genus Acanthostachys is founded upon the Hohen- 
bergia strobilacea of Schultes, and is characterized as follows 
by Dr. Klotzsch : 
ACANTHOSTACHYS. Perigonii superioris sexpartiti lacinize exteriores 
calycinz, compresso-trigone, posticee complicate, carinate., antica dorso 
convexa ; interiores petaloidez, exterioribus longiores, supra basin nude, 
squamosee aut bicristatee, demum spiraliter-contortee. Stamina 6, exte- 
riora epigyna, interiora epipetala; filamenta linearia; antherze erectz, 
lineares, biloculares, intus longitudinaliter dehiscentes ; pollinis granula 
ovalia. Ovarium inferum, triloculare, compresso-trigonum, loculis bi- 
ovulatis. Ovula elliptica, apice tuberculata, e placentis geminis, divari- 
catis, cruciformibus, ex apice anguli centralis loculorum horizontalia, 
anatropa. Stylus filiformis. Stigma infundibuliformi-trilobum minu- 
tissime fimbriatum. Bacca arida, perigonii laciniis coronata, compresso- 
triquetra, trilocularis, apice convexo-inflata. Semina in loculis bina, ex 
apice loculorum pendula, ovoidea, compressa ; testa membranacea, atra. 
Herbze brasilienses ; foliis radicalibus coriaceis, carinatis, spinoso-den- 
tatis, scapis simplicibus aut ramosis; floribus densé spicatis, singulis 
spathaceo-bracteatis. 
37. SISYRINCHIUM majale ; radice carnoso-fasciculataé ; scapo compresso, 
gracili, subsimplici, superne striato, foliis subduplo breviore ; foliis line- 
ari-ensiformibus, conduplicato-vaginantibus, longitudinaliter striatis, 
margine superiore dorsoque evanescente scabris, acuminatis; spathis 
multifloris; bracteis membranaceis, bifidis, albidis ; perigonii foliolis 
aureis, epunctatis aut versus basin unipunctatis, elongato-obovatis apice 
obsolete-dentatis, retusis, mucronatis; staminibus stylisque flavis ; la- 
mentis basi monadelphis, inferne piloso-glandulosis; stigmatibus filifor- 
mibus; germine piloso-glanduloso. Link, Klotzsch & Otto, ic. t. 10. 
The seeds of this plant were received from Valparaiso by | 
Hunneman, in the year 1832. It has a perennial fleshy 
fasciculated root, an herbaceous simple forked stem, from one 
to one foot and a half high, surmounted by 6 or 8 yellow 
flowers, which develope themselves one after another. It has 
been cultivated in an almost open greenhouse at Berlin. It 
flowers in February and March. When it has blossomed 
the stem and leaves decay: it may then be left to dry, and in 
autumn it may be placed in fresh earth in a cool greenhouse. 
It may be propagated by division of: the roots, or by seed. 
