the species, including A. venustum, have, in the dry lime- 
stone hills which they inhabit, the leaves and stems coated 
with an incrustation of calcareous matter. 
A. venustum is, according to Boissier, a native of 
mountain ranges of Cilicia, Cappadocia, Catalonia, Anatolia, 
and Armenia, at elevations of 4000 to 7000 ft. That author 
describes three forms of it which pass into one another ; 
venustum proper, with rather broad plano-carinate leaves ; 
8. Olivieri, to which the plant here figured is referable, 
with longer narrower leaves; it extends from Lycia to 
Western Persia; and y. assyriacum, with a_ velvety 
pubescent rachis of the spike and bracts, which has been 
found in Assyria only. The flowers vary from rose to 
purple. The specimen here figured is from a plant in the 
Rock garden at Kew, where it has long been cultivated, 
forming a dense tuft a foot across, and flowering in 
summer. It was introduced into Europe, probably by 
Bourgeau, the French botanical traveller. 
Descr.—Stems densely tufted, forming moss-like green 
patches. Leaves very variable, spreading, an inch long or 
upwards, acicular in the form here represented, bright 
green, rigid, almost pungent, dorsally rounded, ventrally 
concave, margins minutely scaberulous. lowering stems 
three to four inches long, erect or slightly recurved, 
slender, rigid, green; sheaths distant, lanceolate, acumi- 
nate, erect, green, margins narrowly hyaline. Spike 
secund, subrecurved, two to three inches long, many-fid. ; 
bracts three, about one-third of an inch long, like the 
stem-sheaths, but with broader hyaline margins, outer 
triangular about a third to a half shorter than the inner. 
Flowers one half to three-fourths of an inch broad. Calyzx 
infundibular, scarious, yellow brown, five-lobed; tube 
sparsely hairy in the nerves, lobes broadly ovate, acute, 
erose. Petals spathulately oblanceolate, one-nerved, rose- 
coloured.—J. D. H. 
Fig. 1, Portion of leaf; 2, calyx; 3, petal and stamen; 4 and 5, anthers; 
6, pistil :— All enlarged. 
