Herbarium find the fpecimen from which the description in 

 Hort. Kezv. was taken by one of its learned compilers, Dr. 

 So lander i perhaps this is only a lefs luxuriant variety of <J? 



Thunberg's Ixia lancea> for which Jacouin miftook our 

 variety (3, is a very diftintt fpecies. All thefe varieties are 

 fcentlefs, and flower nearly at the fame time, viz. in April. 

 They are united by many others, that approach more or lefs 

 to one or other of thefe. 



This fpecies is very diflincl from its congeners, and although 

 variable in fome of its proportions, colour, and degree of 

 expanfion, adheres faithfully to all its fpecific diftinclions. 

 Thofe who cannot be reconciled to the propriety of our re- 

 ducing the above to mere varieties of the fame fpecies, and 

 choofe rather to confider them as diftincT:, may retain the 

 names allotted to them by the different authors. 



Throughout this natural order, in which the different fpe- 

 cies and genera Aide imperceptibly into one another, it is 

 often impofTible to mark the exact limits of each, and the 

 means adopted by different authors will be found perpetually 

 inadequate to the tafk. Thus the relative proportions of the 

 tube to the fpathe, and of the border to the tube, though 

 fometimes material, often afford no ground whatever for fpe- 

 cific diflinftion, even differing in different years in the fame 

 plant : fometimes the further cohefion of the lower parts of 

 the fegments, or of the claws, ftrangely alter the appearance 

 of the flower though not the fpecies: in this manner Gla- 

 diolus hirftttus obtains a long cylindric faux and rounded 

 Jhort fegments, their lower or narrower part being abforhed 

 in the faux, thus becoming Gladiolus merianelhis of authors. 

 So in our fpecies the tube and faux of a, j3, and y, are gra- 

 dually elongated till they become the length of the border 

 in <T, partly by the cohefion of the bafes of the fegments and 

 partly by the elongation of the tube. In the fame manner the 

 cartilaginous margin, fo frequent in the leaves of moft of the 

 natural order, can be of fmall import for diftinftion, as its 

 prefence or abfence often depend altogether upon the greater 

 or lefs vigour of the plant. 



Our prefent figure was taken at Edward Woodford's, 

 Efq, Vauxhall. 



