90 



cinnabar colour, and the lateral lobes of the lip are obtuse 

 not acute. 



144. ECHEANDIA ferniflora. Orteg. dec. pi. p. 90 Redout, liliacees, 6. t. 

 313. {Conanthera Echeandia. Pers. syn. 1.370. link & Otto Icones 

 plant, rar. t. 3. Anlkericum reflexum. Cav. ic. iii. t. 241.) 



" This singular plant was among a collection received by 

 Sir Charles Lemon, Bart. M.P. in 1837, from Mr. John 

 Rule, Superintendant of the Real del Monte Mines, Mexico, 

 in the neighbourhood of which it is probably a native. It 

 flowered in the greenhouse at Carclew in June 1839, and 

 continued during July and August to send out a succession 

 of five or six flowers daily. It promises to produce seeds 

 by which there is every chance of its being increased. 



'■^Leaves radical, sheathing, nearly erect, of a glaucous 

 green, linear-lanceolate acute, from 12 to 18 inches long, 

 and rather more than an inch wide, diminishing to a long 

 narrow point. The middle is somewhat fleshy and chan- 

 nelled; the edges slightly undulated and recurved. The 

 Jiower-stem rises on one side from among the leaves, and 

 attains the height of from three to four feet. It is round and 

 branching, with a long lanceolate, acute, sheathing, pale 

 green bract at the base of each branch. The flowers are 

 of a golden yellow, produced in clusters, alternating with 

 one another on the stem, and containing three, sometimes 

 six, flowers in each ; issuing singly from among several small 

 brownish ovate acuminate bracteas. Flower huds ovate-ob- 

 long, pointed at both ends, greenish yellow. When they 

 first make their appearance they are erect, but the day before 

 opening they droop. Pedicels of a pale green, about an 

 inch long, round and slender, with a small joint near the 

 base. Sepals nearly all of one length ; the three outer ones 

 are more pointed, and narrower, than the rest, and have 

 each three greenish veins down the centre. The inner sepals 

 are oblong lanceolate, bluntish at the point, and with the 

 outer ones taper very much towards the base. They are all 

 more or less twisted and rolled back. They open in the 

 morning and remain expanded for about eight or ten hours, 

 after which they gradually close up and decay. Filaments 

 short, enlarging outwardly so as to have the appearance of 

 being slightly bearded. Anthers oblong, closely connected 

 together, of a deeper yellow than the filaments and tapering 



