Brookesiane. | Tab. oO. 
CHLIDANTHUS FRAGRANS. 
Nar. Orv. Amaryllidee. Linn. Syst. Hexandria Monogynia. 
CAULIDANTHUS, Herbert. Perianthium infundibulare sub-irrezulare : laciniis ovalibus patentibus. Stamina recta 
inchisa tubi apice basibus subconnatis inserta inaequalia ; brevioribus laciniis externis oppositis. Filamenta longiora 
subulata: breviora bidentata. Anthere innate. Ovyarium 3-loculare polyspermum: ovulis compressis distichis. 
Stylus filiformis directione staminum. Stigma trilobum. Capsula subcartilaginea 3-valvis. Semina membranacea 
marginata. Herba Chilenses, floribus luteis precocibus, foliis Unearibus 
Chlidanthus fragrans.  Fflerbert’s Appendix. p. 46. 
Clinanthus luteus. Ibid. p. 40. : 
Pancratium luteum. Pavon in Herb. Lambert. 
Descr. Lolia linearia, graminea, late viridia, serotina. Scapus precox, sesquipedalis, pauciflorus. Flores lutei, sessiles, 
subodori, spatha inclusi 1-2-valvi, ovata, ipsis dimidio breviore. Perianthium infundibulare, sub-irregulare, tubo longo, gracili, 
subcurvo ; daciniis eo triplo brevioribus, patentibus, zrtertoribus ovalibus retusis, exterioribus ovatis mucronatis. Stamina 6, recta, 
inclusa, inequalia, fidamentis laciniis exterioribus oppositorum subulatis, integris, alternorum brevioribus bidentatis.. Anthere 
oblonga, innate. Ovariwm 3-gonum, 3-loculare, polyspermum, oyulis compressis, distichis. S¢ydus filiformis, staminibus lon- 
gior. Stigma 3-lobum. Capsula (quam comminutam tantum vidimus) 3-valvis, subcartilaginea. Semina brunnea, membra- 
nacea, marginata. 
For an opportunity of making a drawing of this plant, we are indebted to Mr. Brookes of Ball’s Pond, in whose 
stove it flowered last summer immediately after its importation. It is singular that bulbs of so curious a plant should 
have been received in England for the first time at the very same period by Lord Carnarvon and Mr. Brookes. By 
the latter they are said to have been procured from Chili, and by Lord Carnarvon from Buenos Ayres. The inflo- 
rescence was produced before the leaves, which are slender and bright green: that the latter do not appear upon our 
plant, is owing to our haying had no opportunity of adding them to our drawing since it was originally made. The 
bloom is very fragrant, resembling in scent the Common Jonquil. 
As a genus it seems nearly related to the New Holland Calostemma, from which it is chiefly distinguished by its 
polyspermous capsule and membranous winged seeds. 
So little is known of the plants which have been called Stenomesson by Mr. Herbert, that we scarcely know how 
to discover any very decided line of difference between them and Chlidanthus. From the imperfect examination we 
have been able to give to Mr. Lambert’s specimens, although we may be disposed to consider them likely to prove 
sufficiently distinct, Calostemma nevertheless creates considerable doubt in our mind of the value of the “ Nectarium 
dentatum filamenta connectens,” which seems the only character by which they are at present separated. Mr. Griffin 
is in possession of a plant from South America, which has never flowered with him, of which the leaves are glaucous, 
not bright green; but in other respects very similar to Chlidanthus. We are disposed to think it may form another 
species of this genus. 
The South American specimen sent to Mr. Lambert by Pavon, from which Mr. Herbert formed his genus Clinan- 
thus, appears to us to be only a weak specimen of this, which, when it afterwards flowered with Mr. Brookes, 
Mr. Herbert probably did not recognise ; since we find it again described, wiih no reference to the genus which had 
been previously made from it, under the name of Chlidanthus fragrans, which we have adopted. 
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE, 
9 
|. A flower cut open. 2. The ovarium and style, 3. The oyarium opened so as to show the ovules, 
