Tas. 6213. 
CYPELLA prrRvuviANA. 
Native of Peru. 
Nat. Ord. InrpaceE&.— Tribe IRIDEA, 
Genus Cypriua, Herb. (Klatt in Linnea, vol. xxxi., p. 538). 
CYPELLA peruviana; bulbo ovoideo tunicato, foliis 2-3 caulinis membranaceis 
linearibus plicatis, spathis solitariis 2-3-floris terminalibus, spathe valvis 
membranaceis arcte convolutis, ovario parvo cylindrico, perianthii limbo 
magno luteo prope basin rubro-brunneo maculato, segmentis ad basin liberis 
exterioribus patulis rotundato-unguiculatis, interioribus multo minoribus pan- 
duriformibus convolutis medio facie pilosis, stigmatibus luteis petaloideis 
bifidis, staminibus erectis stylo adpressis, 
This handsome Irid, new so far as I can make out, was 
introduced in 1874 by Messrs. Veitch from the Peruvian 
Andes. It does not agree with the six species of Cypella 
described by Klatt in his monograph above cited either in 
habit or precisely in stigma. They are all natives of Brazil, 
and have spathes produced from the side of great ensiform 
iris-like leaves. Here the habit is substantially that of 
Phalocailis, Polia, or Beatonia, but in all these the stigmas 
are materially different. These South American Irids are 
very difficult to study, the flowers being so fugacious in a 
living state, and seldom represented in a satisfactory manner 
in herbarium specimens. We have in the Kew Herbarium 
specimens of either the same plant or a closely allied one 
from the temperate region of the Bolivian Andes, in grassy 
places, near Sorata, gathered by Mandon. 
Descr. Bulb ovoid, clothed with scarious brown tunics. 
Basal leaves vanished by the time the plant flowers. Sfem- 
leaves two to three, linear, six to nine inches long, one-half 
_ to three-quarters inch broad, narrowed gradually from the 
middle to both ends, glabrous, papyraceous, plicate. lowers 
two to three in a solitary stalked terminal cluster, fugacious, 
and appearing in succession from the spathe. Spathe-valves 
two, membranous, tightly convolute round the pedicels. 
Ovary green, fusiform, half an inch long. Limb bright yellow, 
maculate at the base with red-brown, the divisions free 
down to the ovary, the outer three much the largest, 
Fenrvary Ist, 1876. 
