Tab. 4136 



BARBACENIA squamata. 



Scaly -stalked Barbacenia. 



Nat. Ord. H.emodorace^e. — Hexandria Monogynia. 



BARBACENIA. Vandelli. Gen. Char. Perianthivm corollinum, ova- 

 rio adnatum, infundibuliforme, sex-fidura. Filamenta bifida, antheras dorso 

 affixas in divisione gerentia. Capsula trilocularis, polysperma. Mart 



Barbacenia squamata; caudice brevi diviso basibus squamiformibus 

 foliorum vetustorum tecto, foliis lineari-acuminatis carinatis glaucis 

 marginibus carinaque minute spinuloso-serratis, scapo foliis breviore, 

 perianthii glabri tubo superne sensim dilatato laciniis lanceolatis 

 acuminatis, filamentis latissimis apice truncatis vix emarginatis anthera 

 dimidio brevioribus. 



Barbacenia squamata. Paxt. Mag, of Bot. cum Ic. 



A singular plant, and belonging to a singular Genus of 

 HiEMODORACE^E, of which twelve species have been hitherto 

 known, and these, according to Martius, are confined within 

 very narrow limits in the New World, between 14° and 23° 

 of southern latitude ; they delight in mountainous situations, 

 growing among micaceous schist, and on rock of other prim- 

 aeval formations, at an elevation of from 1,000 to 5,500 feet, 

 and in exposed, dry situations. The present seems to differ 

 from all yet described in several particulars, and was sent 

 to Mr. Veitch of Exeter from the Organ Mountains, by 

 Mr. William Lobb, in 1841. From a plant obligingly com- 

 municated by Mr. Veitch to Kew Gardens, where it flowered 

 in the stove in the summer of 1843, our present figure was 

 taken. In the color of the flowers, and general size of the 

 plant, it resembles B. tricolor and B. tomentosa, Mart.; but it 

 differs from both in the absence of clothing to its leaves, in 

 the form of the flower, and especially in the nature of the 

 filament of the anther, which is here unusually short and 

 broad, and can hardly be termed bifid. 



Descr. Caudex, or stem, short, dichotomous, clothed with 

 the scale-like remains of former leaves: the perfect leaves are 



