84 
in this country or on the continent. Its leaves are about a 
quarter of an inch wide, spreading in a flat tuft; its large 
gaudy flowers supported, like those of the Crocus, by a long 
tube from an underground germen, the tube being five or six 
inches long. It is found from a little above the sea level to 
the summit of most, if not all, of the mountains in Corfu and 
Santa Maura, but does not reach the loftier bare top of 
Mount Œnos in Cephalonia, and it is said that some of the 
steeps of Corfu are in a blaze of blue from its flowers in 
January or February. Dispersed as it is, it seems strange 
that its seed cannot be obtained without great difficulty. A 
vast number of the most promising plants were dug up in 
Santa Maura in May, in the vain hope of obtaining a capsule, 
and with the help of a native, who well knew the difficulty. 
At last, in passing over Mount Rondi, in Cephalonia, I 
observed a dead plant of this Iris hanging by a root to the 
upper edge of a land slip, with a capsule, and having with 
difficulty scrambled up to it, I found one seed in it, which I 
brought home, and it has vegetated, as well as the plants 
which were dug up, but which I had not felt sure of being 
able to preserve alive. It remains to be ascertained, whether 
they will endure the climate of the interior of England. In 
the Ionian islands they seemed to be co-extensive with the 
white and the rose-coloured sage-leaved Cistus, which appear 
to me to be varieties of one species, growing quite promis- ` 
cuously on the poorer slopes, though in the stronger soil 
where Malope Malacoides grew, I observed the red flowering 
later and alone. They are both liable to be killed with us by 
frost, except on dry banks in favoured parts of the island. 
W. H. 
80. SERAPIAS cordigera. 
I believe this plant to be a fine variety of Serapias longi- 
petala. The latter is abundant in Corfu in the open spaces 
amongst the Cistus, oak, myrtle, Schinus, and other shrubs, 
which are kept in a dwarf state by the goats, with the lip 
very variable in size, and sometimes almost obsolete, and 
S. cordigera, with the larger lip, is found intermixed with 
the inferior sort, the colour of both being a dark brick red, 
varying to a dirty white. They are most plentiful on the less 
fertile slopes, but grow stronger when found in a richer and 
lower position. —W. H. 
