Tas. 5580. 
SCILLA. Cooprrt. 
Cooper's Squill. 
Nat. Ord. Liniacrz.—Hexanpria Monoeynia. 
Gen. Char. (Vide supra, Tas. 5308.) 
ScriLa Cooperi ; bulbo subgloboso, foliis 8-10 poll. longis elongato-lanceo- 
latis obtusiusculis striatis utrinque concoloribus subtus purpureo line- 
atis et basin versus maculatis, scapo viridi foliis breviore, racemo 2—3- 
pollicari subdenso cylindrico, pedicellis patentibus pallide purpureis 
3-4 poll. longis, bracteis minutis, floribus purpureis 3 poll. latis, petalis 
patentibus non reflexis oblongis obtusis dorso apice incrassatis, sta- 
minibus erectis, antheris peltatis, ovario breviter stipitato depresso- 
hemisphzrico 6-suleato basi dilatato 6-lobo, stylo brevi recto, loculis 
2-ovulatis, ovulis geminis. 
The Cape bulbs are sufficiently numerous and difficult of 
determination to form a study of themselves; and as they 
are wanting neither in interest nor beauty, it is to be hoped 
that they may soon find a historian. At present all is con- 
fusion as regards the genera and species of this long-culti- 
vated tribe, and we know no more difficult plants than these 
toname. ‘The pretty species here represented has the habit 
and appearance of many Drimias, but differs from the typi- 
cal species of that genus in the two-ovuled cells of the ovary, 
and in the spreading lobes of the perianth, which are neither 
reflexed nor do they form a tube at the base. From the 
technical characters of Scilla it differs in the definite ovules ; 
but as it agrees in other respects, and is evidently a very 
close ally of the Canary Island S. Berthelotii (Tab. nostr. 
5308), which has also only two ovules in each cell, I cannot 
(in the present state of our knowledge) refuse it a place in 
that genus, of which but few Cape species have hitherto 
been described. The stipitate ovary, with two geminate 
ovules in each cell, occurs in other plants hitherto referred 
JUNE Ist, 1866. 
