Tab. 6986. 

 HELONIOPSIS japonica. 



Native of Japan and Corea. 



Nat. Old. Liliace-E. — Tribe Nabthecie.e. 

 Genus Heloniopsis, A. Gray ; (Benth. et Hook.f. Gen. PI. vol. iii. p. 827.) 



Heloniopsis japonica ; rhizomate crasso prsemorso, foliis rosulatis oblanceolatis 

 sessilibus firmulis patulis, pedunculo foliis paucis valde reductis pracdito, floribus 

 2—10 racemosis vel subumbellatis, pedicellis brevibus cernuis, bracteis parvis 

 lanceolatis, periantbio campanulato segmentis oblanceolatis, staminibus 

 periantbio aequilongis vel paulo longioribus, stylo staminibus longiori, 

 seminibus utrinque caudatis. 



H. japonica, Maxim, in Bull. Acad. Petrop. vol. vi. p. 211 ; Franch. et Savat. 

 Fnum. Jap. vol. ii. p. 87 ; Baker in Journ. Linn. Soc. vol. xvii. p. 460. 



Scilla japonica, Thunb. Fl. Jap. p. 137; Icon. Dec. iv. t. 4; Kunth Enum. 

 vol. iv. p. 330. 



Sugerokia japonica, Miquel in Ann. JUus. Lug. Bat. vol. iii. p. 345. 



This interesting plant has long been known to botanists, 

 but the genus is now brought for the first time into culti- 

 vation. It is spread widely in the mountains of Japan, its 

 altitudinal range, according to Mr. Maries, being from two 

 thousand to seven thousand feet above sea-level. It has 

 lately been discovered in Oorea by Mr. W. R. Carles, and 

 it is very likely that the Formosan H. umoellata> Baker, 

 will prove to be only a geographical variety of the same 

 species. It has the general habit of a large-flowered Scilla, 

 to which genus it was originally referred by Thunberg, but 

 the rootstock is not a bulb, the leaves are persistent and 

 not fleshy in texture, and the small seeds are conspicuously 

 tailed at each end, like those of a Narthecium or Pitcaimia. 

 It appears to be perfectly hardy in England. It was 

 brought home by Mr. Maries, and first flowered by Messrs. 

 Veitch in the spring of 1881. Our drawing was made from 

 a plant presented by Messrs. Veitch that flowered in the 

 herbaceous pits at Kew in April, 1887. 



Descr. Rootstock short, stout, prasmorse, bearing nume- 

 rous long cylindrical root-fibres. Leaves many in a basal 



maech 1st, 1888. 



