8, MONANDRJA MONOGYNiA. Phrynium^ 



Root perennial, tuberous like ginger, with long, fleshy fibres fi-om 

 the crown, and various other parts. — Stem none. — Leaves radical, 

 long-petioled, oblong, entire, smooth on both sides ; length from 6 

 to 18 inches, and broad iu proportion. Feins immerous, fine and pa- 

 rallel. — Petioles longer than the leaves, slender, round, smooth, tap- 

 er a little from the base, and are there expanded into a sheath for those 

 immediately within ; such as are destined to bear the flowers have a 

 joint a little above the middle ; immediately above this joint there is a 

 swelling, which in due time is forced open on the inside by the grow- 

 ing flowers exactly as iu our Indian species of Pontederia. It how- 

 ever sometimes appears, and even in the same plant, that some of the 

 petioles, now scapes, extend no further than the flowers. — Flozcers nu- 

 merous, collected into a pretty large, sessile head, which bursts from 

 the anterior margin of the jointed petioles, small, and nearly hid 

 among the large bractes ; when they first expand in the morning rose- 

 colour'd, gradually becoming purple by the evening. — Bractes, ca- 

 lyx of Louriero's Phyllodes, several, collecting the small sessile flowers 

 into several fasciculi of two, three, or four pair, each of which ex- 

 pand in succession. The exterior one of each fascicle is large, sub- 

 cylindric, of a firm texture, and reddish colour; apices truncate, 

 with scariose, incurved margin ; the rest are smaller, and more or less 

 pointed. — Calyx superior, three-leaved ; leajiets ensiform, length of 

 the tube of the corol, hairy about the points. — Carol one-petalled. 

 Tube funnel-shaped, scarcely perforated. Border double ; exterior of 

 three, equal, purple, spatulate, recurvate segments ; interior more 

 elevated on a continuation of the tube, and consists of five, vei7 un- 

 equal segments ; the exterior two larger, round, curled, and of a pale 

 rose colour ; the innermost one small, and running down the side of 

 the filament like a wing. — Filament solitary, short, inserted on the 

 mouth of the tube close by the free, curved end of the style. Anther 

 simple 5 grains of the pollen white, large, and spherical. — Germ infe- 

 rior, oblong, very short pedicelled, hairy, 3-celled, with one (yvulum 

 in each, attached to the bottom of its cell. Style growing to, or 

 blended with the tube of the corol. Stigma large, funnel-shaped, ob- 

 liquely-incurved or hooked towards the anther.— Capsule short, turbi- 



