Calyx fhort, outer valve three, inner two-toothed. Corollas 

 fometimes with fo fhort a tube that they appear to be 

 rotate : Segments fomewhat unguiculate, obovate, concaye, 

 and ultimately reflexed to the very Item, though previously 

 only partially fo, perhaps one, then two, which at that time 

 gives it the appearance of having irregular corollas. Stamens 

 wort, upright." Pijlil fhorter. Anthers very fmall, oblong, or 

 ovate, approaching each other fo as to form a kind of bead- 

 Stigmas ciliate. — It is very apt to have the tops of its leaves 

 withered before it flowers. Varies with purple, rofe, pink, and 

 whitifh coroJlas. All fcentlefs, though Jacquin defcribes the 

 narrow-leaved one as fweet ; this blows much later and is 

 probably a diftinft: fpecies. 



This is certainly Lin nous's plant, and received its trivial 

 name from a fuppofed refemblance to Scilla am<ena t a proof 

 that he defcribed from a dried fubjecf,, in which ftate it cer- 

 tainly affords different ideas of relemblance, than when feerr 

 in a living one, efpecially in colour, which then becomes 

 nearly violet ; but isdiftinft; from the l.fcillaris of Thunberg, 

 that being nearly allied to I. fecunda. What is ufually called 

 fcillaris by the Nurferymen is Ixi a excifa, which refembles our 

 plant in the leaf, but is a completely different fpecies. 



This article, for which, as well as the preceding, we are en? 

 tirely indebted to Mr. Gawler, will, we hope, be the means 

 of putting an end to the errors and confufion this fpecies has 

 caufed among Botanifts. The Synonyms are fo arranged as to 

 fhew its hiftory and clear up the blunders. Thunberg ful- 

 peBed Lin nous's fcillaris was h\s fecunda, a fpecies, perhaps 

 the moft diftant from it of the whole genus. He obferves 01 

 our. plant, that it now and then, though rarely, has four fta- 

 mens and four ftigmas, and fometimes five, to which he might 

 have alfo added fix ; but this is a luxuriancy well known to all 

 cultivators of this genus not to be at all uncommon in moft ot 

 the fpecies ; to which redundancy of the parts of fructification, 

 a proportionate one of the fegments of the coroll? .soften added; 

 but furely this cannot juftify his adopting the t.ivial name ot 

 pentandra, efpecially as he allows its having five ftamens to 

 happen very rarely. Ixi a crocata fometimes occurs with twelve 

 fegments, fix ftamens, fix ftigmas, and Ixia falcaia with nine 

 fegments, fix ftamens, ftyles, and ftigmas. 



It is eafily propagated by feeds and offsets ; flowers as early 

 as January. Was introduced into the Kew Garden by 

 Mr. Masson in 1787. 



