52 MONANDRIA MONOGYNIA, LEG 
garden the rainy season; . the seeds ripen in Sicebe: and 
December. 
Root jointed, running horizontally at some depth under the 
surface of the earth, and furnished with long fleshy fibres from 
the joints; from these joints shoots rise, and by them the 
plant is readily propagated, Stems about two feet high, 
bending considerably to one side. Leaves alternate, approxi- 
mate, bifarious, sessile on their sheaths, from cordate below 
to lanceolate toward the top of the plant, both sides smooth, 
and marked with paralleled veins, the under side paler green, 
length from three to twelve inches, and breadth about four, 
Sheaths smooth, from the mouth of each rises a remarkably 
large long strap, or ligula, which by the growth of the plant — 
becomes bifid, and. by age scariose. Spikes radical, half 
hid in the earth, oblong, loosely imbricated with cuneiform, 
pink-coloured, one-flowered, exterior scales or bractes; 3; and 
_ the same number of inner colourless, tridentate shorts 
bractes; or, as they may be called, inferior perianths. Calyx 
superior, one-leaved, spathiform, about half the length of 
the tube of the corol, irregularly tridentate. _ Corol ; tube 
slender, the length of the exterior scales of the spike, incurv- 
ed. Exterior border of three, nearly equal, linear, acute, 
smooth, reddish divisions. Lip oblong, obtuse ; margins much 
curled, with two expanding, more or less acute lobes at the 
very base; colour a pale yellow. Filament short ; below the 
two-lobed anther, linear, ending above in the fia long, ta- 
per, curved, grooved beak. Germ oval, villous, three-celled, 
each containing many ovula attached to a central receptacle, 
Style very slender, and so long as to elevate the funnel-shap- 
ed, ciliate stigma to an equal height with the apex of the fi- 
lament. Nectarial scales long and slender, embracing the 
base of the style within the bottom of the tube of the corol. 
Capsule ovate, size of a large olive, three-sided, three-celled, 
three-valved, opening from the apex down the angles; inside | 
of ‘the cells crimson, Calyx leathery, striated, pale, dull 
yellowish sea. colour. Seeds many, Chas biecki b Us wn 5 
