Tas. 4894. 
OUVIRANDRA FENEsSTRALIS. 
Water-Yam, or Lace-leaf. 
Nat. Ord. Juncacinr2.—HeExanpria Monoeynyia. 
Gen. Char. OUVIRANDRA, P. Th. Flores hermaphroditi. Sepala 2 (unilateralia 
—3, Dene.), colorata, decidua. Stamina 6, persistentia; filamentis subulatis, in- 
ferne dilatatis; antheris basi affixis, bilocularibus, lateraliter dehiscentibus ; polline 
acute ellipsoideo. Ovaria 3-4, lagenzeformia, in stylum brevem, s¢igmate obliquo 
subapicali, facie interna notatum desinentia, unilocularia, 2—6-ovulata; ovudis 
basi affixis, adscendentibus, anatropis. olliculi rostrati, abortu 1-3-spermis, 
introrsum dehiscentes. Semina exalbuminosa, testa herbacea, membrana in- 
teriore tenui. Zmbryo rectus, ascendens, cotyledone crassa foliacea v. excavata 
plumulam maximam bifoliam amplectente.—Herbee aquatica, tuberculose, caudice 
elongato ramoso, foliis radicalibus venosis submersis. Seapi elongati, spicas singulas 
binas ternasve gerentes. Spatha caduca. Edgew. 
Ovviranpra fenestralis ; foliis submersis sublonge petiolatis oblongis fenestratis 
mucronulatis, nervis longitudinalibus apice confluentibus, spicis binis. 
OuvirnanpDRa fenestralis. Poiret, Eneycl. Bot. Suppl. v. 4. p. 237. Decaisne in 
De Lessert’s Icones, v. 3. p. 62. t. 99.. Kunth, Enum. Plant. o. 3. p. 592. 
Edgeworth, on Aponoget. etc., Hook. Lond. Journ. Bot. v. 3. p. 405. : 
Hyproceton fenestralis. Pers. Syn. Pl. v. 1. p.400. Spreng. Syst. Veget. v. 2. 
p. 162. 
More than thirty years ago, through the kindness of the late 
Charles Telfair, Esq., of Mauritius, our Herbarium was enriched 
by fine, dried, flowering specimens, and our Museum by speci- 
mens in alcohol, of this most remarkable plant, gathered by Pro- 
fessor Bojer in Madagascar. Some thirty years previous to that 
the plant was first detected in Madagascar by Aubert du Petit- 
Thouars, who described the genus in his ‘ Nov. Gen. Plant. Ma- 
dagasc.,’ a work to which we are sorry we have not at this time 
access. It was impossible not to desire earnestly that so very 
remarkable and so very curious a plant, whose leaves are consti- 
tuted by a series of the most beautiful network, without paren- 
chyma, reduced in short to its vascular reticulated tissue, should 
be in cultivation in this country, and our wishes have at length 
been crowned with success. ‘The Rev. William Ellis wrote to 
JANUARY Ist, 1856. 
