Specific Charadter and Synonyms. 
MARICA. wérihiana ; vivipara, fubbarbata, foliis enfiformibus 
flabellatim diftichis, caule alato-enfiformi toto ab 
involucriextima valva folioformi concreto-vaginato, 
laciniis extimis fubdeflexis. G, | : 
‘FERRARIA elegans. Salifo. Prod. Hort. 42. ! 
MOR ALA northiana.  Ketn: Hort. Semp. t. Bot. Rep. t. 255. 
Root fibrous; caudex fhort, generally hid by the laterally 
far imbricate equitant bafes of the leaves, which are e—g feet 
high, linear-lanceolate, flat, polifhed, with a lateral excifion 
on their inner fide for half their length, ftiffened from below 
_ by a flattifh but broad and thick midrib gradually obliterated 
upwards; ftem longer than thefe, often falcate, fheathed its 
whole length by the lower braéte, which refembles the leaves 
but is narrower, with this it is entirely grown together; from 
near its fummit iffues laterally the common peduncle or rachis, 
refraéted in the oppofite dire€tion and fheathed by the oppofite 
-bra&e which is many times fmaller than the lower one; flower- 
fafcicles z—3, fometimes twin, terminal one the largeft and 
moft flowered; one or more of thefe inftead of flowering is 
generally transformed into a perfe& plant prefently fhooting 
out its fibres through the fheathing braéte, its involucre and 
{pathes becoming fo many leaves, it grows and increafes thus pen- 
file till its weight bends the mother-ftem near enough to the earth 
for it to take root therein. Flowers in April and May, but its 
bloom fcarcely lafts through the forenoon ;_ very fragrant. 
Exterior fegments of Corolla large, lanceolate-elliptic, interior 
fuburceolately affurgent, obovate-oblong, far fmaller, broad, 
concave, pubefcent ungues, recurved lamine with revolute 
margins. Piftil rather longer than ftamens; ftigmas fhortly 
trifid, two fegments upright, acuminate, the third rolling back 
forms a kind of lip on the angles and not in the {pace between 
‘the angles, as in In1s and Mora&a. A native of the Brazils, 
where it was gathered on the ifland of Raza, near the mouth of 
Rio Janeiro, by Sir Josep Banxs; introduced here via 
Lifbon, by the late Mrs. Nortu, in honour of whom the 
gardeners have dubbed it with its prefent barbarous nick-name. 
Requires to be kept in the ftove, where it flowers freely, does 
not feed, but produces abundance of offsets or fuckers. Our 
drawing was taken at Meflrs, Grimwoop and Wyxes’s Nur- 
fery ? Kenfington, G, 
Age Bs i 
