B. nobilis and grandiflora, and these were principally distin- 
guished by their foliage, and the length of their bracts as 
compared with the flower-stalks. 
Two or three years since, however, there appeared in the 
Nursery of Messrs. Osborne and Co. of Fulham a most beau- 
tiful species, which the Dean of Manchester at once perceived 
to be distinct and called B. marginata, in consequence of the 
roughness of the edges of its leaves. It was indeed far 
handsomer than B. grandiflora, from which it differed in its 
flowers being deep copper colour instead of half red and half 
yellow, in its long leafy bracts, and in the shape of its blos- 
soms which form a nearly regular cone, instead of being 
contracted above the base, and then inflated in the upper 
division. 
That plant is now figured. It isa native of Van Diemen’s 
Land, where it appears to be abundant, and is we presume 
the real Aletris punicea of Labillardière. Dried specimens 
of it, in the most beautiful preservation, were sent to his 
friends by Mr. Gunn, who found it abundantly on Rocky 
Cape in the year 1837, growing in poor quartz sand, and 
usually where the soil was rather wet. It was Mr. Gunn’s 
wish that the species should bear the name of Mr. James 
Backhouse, an excellent practical Botanist, and extremely 
well acquainted with the Tasmannian Flora. The Dean of 
Manchester’s designation having been published Mr. Gunn’s 
wish cannot be carried into effect. Iam happy however to 
find that Van Diemen’s Land produces another species quite 
different from B. grandiflora, to which Mr. Backhouse’s 
name can be applied. 
. Blandfordia Backhousii was sent home by Mr. Gunn 
among his early collections, under the number 241, from the 
banks of the river Mersey, fifty miles from Launceston. 
This plant has nearly the leaves of B. grandiflora, but its 
flowers have a tendency to form a corymb ; their form is that 
of B. marginata, and their bracts are of the same nature but 
much narrower and weaker, and not one half the length of 
the slender flower-stalks. My specimen has twenty-three 
flowers, and must have made a splendid appearance when 
alive. 
