Othonna bulbosa, a. Linn. Sp. PL p. 1309. 

 Othonna bulbosa. Willd. Sp. PL 3. p. 2377. Ait. Hort. 

 Kew. ed. 2. p. 178. 



A plant little known in our gardens we believe ; yet not 

 unworthy of cultivation. It appears to have been intro- 

 duced from the Cape to the Royal Gardens of Kew in 1774, 

 by Mr. Masson, and then lost to this country. Tubers, 

 however, were again sent to the same establishment by Mr. 

 Anderer, in 1842. These produced their showy yellow 

 flowers in August of the same year. 



Descr. Root a solitary, globose tuber, somewhat resem- 

 bling that of a Cyclamen, throwing out a few fibrous ra- 

 dicles from various parts of its surface, especially from 

 beneath. Above is a short collum, or neck, fringed with 

 long, dense wool : and here arise three or four or more 

 stems, six to eight or ten inches high, rather stout, herbace- 

 ous, more or less hairy at the base, decumbent, then erect, 

 leafy chiefly at the bottom, and there each stem produces 

 one large, ovato-cordate or obovate, waved, obtuse, pubes- 

 centi-hirsute, sinuato-crenate at the margin, petiolated leaf. 

 The rest of the leaves are reduced to bracteas, obovate or 

 linear, remote, uppermost ones minute, subulate. Flower 

 solitary, rather large, terminal, yellow. Involucre of one 

 piece,broadly cylindrical, plaited, twelve to fourteen-tooth- 

 ed, the teeth red at the margin. Ray of the same number of 

 female, ligulate florets. Achenium pilose, crowned with a 

 simple, hairy pappus. Stamens none. Disk of from fifteen 

 to twenty, or more, tubular, male florets. Ovary linear-ob- 

 long, glabrous, crowned with a long, simple pappus. Co- 

 rolla tubular. Stamens five, connate. Style thickened 

 upwards. Stigma of two points, within a circle of hairs 

 round the base. Receptacle convex, dotted, naked. 



Fig. 1. Floret of the Ray. 2. Ditto of the Disk. 3. Hair from the Pap- 

 pus. 4. Style and Stigmas. 5. Receptacle : all more or less magnified. 



