1360 



SPARAXIS* pendula. 

 Pendulous-flowered Sparawis. 



TRIANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 



Nat. ord. Iride^ Juss. {Lindley's introduction to the natural system, 

 p. 260.) 



SPARAXIS Ker.—Suprd, vol. 3. fol, 258. 



S. pendula ; foliis linearibus strictis scapo polystachyo duplo brevioribus, 



spicis pendulis multifloris. 

 Iria pendula. Thunh. diss. no. 16. Prodr. 9. Flor. cap. 1. 286. Linn. 



suppL 91. Willd. sp. pi. 1. 204. VaM enum. 2. QQ. ROmer et 



Schultes syst. veg. 1. 392. Spreng. syst. veg. 1. 156. 

 .Watsonia palustris. Persoon synops. 45. 

 Sparaxis pendula. Ker in hot. mag. 1482 {in textu). Botan. reg. v. 3. 



append. Spreng. syst. veg. 1. 149. Ker genera Irid. 92. 



Herba rigida, perennis, ccBspitosa, foliis linearibus, acutis, strictis, 

 3-pedalibus, scapis brevioribus. Scapi graciles, erecti, apice penduli, 

 polystachyi ; spicae pedunculis capillaribus insidentes, pendulce, secundoe, 

 6-7-Jiorce, foliis binis capillai-ibus ad basin pedunculi cujusvis. Flores 

 secundi, lilacini, venosi, intrd bracteas {y. spathas) membranaceas, con- 

 volutas, sublaceras, sessiles. Perianthium sexpartitum, sepalis petalisque 

 conformibus, oblongis, obtusis, sub sole patentibus. Antlierae lineares, atro- 

 purpurecB. Capsula trilocularis, trivalvis, loculicida, seminibus duobtis sub- 

 rotundis brunneis in utroque loculo. 



A native of the Cape of Good Hope, whence it was 

 introduced a year or two ago by Mr. Tate. Thunberg 

 found it growing in wet situations near Kramrivier, with 

 scapes six feet high. In Mr. Herbert's Conservatory, 

 where it blossomed in June last, for the first time in 

 England, the flowering stems were four feet high, and the 

 length of the full-grown leaves three feet. 



* From FTTx^uFo-a), to tear. The generic distinction consists in the 

 lacerated spathas. — Loudon's Encycl. of Plants, p. 41. 



