Tab. 6360. 

 AMBROSINIA Bassii. 



Native of Southern Italy and Algiers. 



Nat. Ord. Aroideje. — Tribe Alleluchie^. 

 Genus Ambrosinia, Bassi; (Schott. Prodr. Syst. Aroid. p. 19). 



Ambrosinia Bassii, Linn. Syst. Veg, p. 689. Blume, Rumphi, vol. i. p. 81, t. 36. 

 Cesati in Linncea, vol. xi. p. 281, t. 5. Kunth Enum. PI. vol. iii. p. 10. 

 Bivoni, Stirp. Rar. Sic. Manip. vol. iii. p. 9. Gussoni, Syn. Flor. Sic. vol. ii. 

 pars 2, p. 594. Bertol. Fl. Ital. vol. x. p. 252. Parlat. Fl. Ital. vol. ii. 

 p. 231. 



For the opportunity of figuring this singular and interesting 

 little Aroid, I am indebted to Mrs. Grant Duff, who accom- 

 panied her husband, Mr. E. Grant Duff, M.P., F.L.S., of 

 York House, Twickenham, to Algeria, in the winter of this 

 year, and brought living plants, which she presented to 

 the Royal Gardens, and which being in bud, flowered in 

 February. It is one of the most curious of European plants, 

 presenting with something of the habit of Asanim, a floral 

 economy in many respects resembling that of some of the 

 terrestrial orchids. Thus the tail of the spathe resembles 

 that of the sepals of a Masdevallia, and the tongue-shaped 

 spadix as seen in the section of the inflorescence (fig. 2), with 

 its pappillose upper surface next the ovary, and its anthers on 

 the under surface behind its recurved tip, in its position towards 

 the ovary recalls the lip of many genera of Orchids, notably of 

 Pterostylis. This arrangement, which precludes the possibility 

 of the pollen reaching the stigma without aid, is no doubt 

 intended to facilitate cross-fertilization by insects, a process 

 which, in so far as I am aware, has never been enquired 

 into in this genus. The geographical range of Ambrosinia 



MAT 1st, 1878. 



