35 



* TRITONIA fucata. 



Painted Tritonia. 



TRIANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 



Nat. ord. Iridaceje. 



TRITONIA. Bot. Reg. vol. 2.fol. 135. 



T. fucata ; spicis secundis decurvis floribus erectis, perianthio clavato sursum 

 ventricoso arcuato bilabiato, labio superiore oblongo bidentato subfornicato 

 inferiore 5-partito recurvo laciniis linearibus obtusis sequalibus. 



I am acquainted with this very remarkable plant through 

 a drawing communicated in August 1837, with the following 

 note by the Hon. and Rev. W. Herbert. 



" I received the bulbs from the Cape of Good Hope, 

 about twenty-five years ago. They multiplied rapidly, and, 

 some having been left out in the open ground, they proved 

 to be perfectly hardy, thriving equally in peat, and in the 

 common soil of the garden, and there were so many large 

 bunches of it at last in my garden, that hundreds of the 

 bulbs have been dug up and purposely destroyed. Till now 

 it has never flowered with me, nor with those amongst 

 whom I had distributed part of the increase. At the end of 

 last autumn it occurred to me to have dung laid on the 

 patches which were growing in the garden soil, and the result 

 has been the production of a flower-stem this summer. I 

 doubt not that manure is the requisite to make it flower freely. 

 It appears to agree in structure with Tritonia refracta of the 

 Bot. Register, though very different in many respects. The 



* So named by Mr. Ker from Triton a vane or weathercock, in allusion to 

 the variableness of the species of this genus, as regards the direction of their 

 anthers. 



