60 



* PATERSONIA sapphimia. 

 Sapphire Patersonia. 



MONADELPHIA TRJAKDlilA. 



Nat. ord. Iridace^. 



PA TERSONIJ. Boin, ileal Register, vol. 1 . fol. 5 1 . 



P. sapphirina; foliis linearlbus viridibus scapoque glabris junloribus tenuissiine 

 ciliatis : striis sequalibus, scapo foliorum longitudlne, spathis inultifloris 

 carina interiorum tomentosa, stigmate erecto, antheris isoscelo-triaiigularibus. 

 Folia bipedalia et ultra, 2 lineas lata ; striis (cqualibus ; juniora pilis 

 minutis ciliata cito deciduis. Capsulse oblongce, angustcB, trigonce, apice et 

 angulis cum perianthii basi persistente tomentosce ; loculicido-trivalves, po- 

 ly spermcB. Semina atra, ascendentia, oblonga, mutud pressione angulata, 

 tenuissime acustriata, angulo centrali loculorum adnata, sine ullo columnce 

 centralis vestigio ; raphe tenuis; chalaza elevata subfungosa ; albumen cor- 

 neitm, amylo plenum, oleosum, revera album, sed luce testce violaced trans- 

 missd quasi violaceum , embryo minimus in cavitate hilo proximd obliqvu 

 inclusus. 



A beautiful herbaceous plant, requiring the simplest 

 greenhouse cultivation, and inhabiting the Swan River 

 Colony, whence its seeds were obtained by Mr. Mangles. 

 Unfortunately the brilliant sappliire flowers, to which colours 

 fail to do justice, are of short duration : a large plant will 

 however produce numerous flower-heads, and these, by the 

 number of their blossoms, compensate for their ephemeral 

 existence. 



The species now represented differs from all mentioned 

 in Dr. Brown's Prodromus, and in the account of Swan 



* So named by Dr. Brown, as he tells us, in honour of his " very dear 

 friend, "William Paterson, a celebrated traveller, lieutenant-governor of New South 

 Wales, of which region he for many years investigated the Flora with great zeal." 

 This was doubtless an excellent reason for naming some New Holland ])lant after 

 Colonel Paterson, but none for doing so at the expense of M. Labillarditre, wlio 

 first called this genus Genosiris. 



