14 



The plant has blossomed twice in the Botanic Garden at Ber- 

 lin in the months of June and July in a hot-house, with a 

 temperature of from 58° to 60°. A soil composed of equal 

 parts of sand and decayed wood or leaves seems most agree- 

 able to it. It may be propagated by suckers struck in a hot- 

 bed. This genus Acanthostachys is founded upon the Hohen- 

 bergia strobilacea of Schultes, and is characterized as follows 

 by Dr. Klotzsch : 



ACANTHOSTACHYS. Perigonii superioris sexpartiti lacinise exteriores 

 calycinse, compresso-trigonee, posticse complicatae, carinatee, antica dorso 

 convexa ; interiores petaloidese, exterioribus longiores, supra basin nudse, 

 squamosse aut bicristatse, demum spiraliter-contortse. Stamina 6, exte- 

 riora epigyna, interiora epipetala ; filamenta linearia ; antberse erectse, 

 lineares, biloculares, intus longitudinaliter debiscentes ; pollinis granula 

 ovalia. Ovarium inferum, triloculare, compresso-trigonum, loculis bi- 

 ovulatis. Ovula elliptica, apice tuberculata, e placentis geminis, divari- 

 catis, cruciformibus, ex apice anguli centralis loculorum borizontalia, 

 anatropa. Stylus filiformis. Stigma infundibuliformi-trilobum minu- 

 tissime fimbriatum. Bacca arida, perigonii laciniis coronata, compresso- 

 triquetra, trilocularis, apice convexo-inrlata. Semina in loculis bina, ex 

 apice loculorum pendula, ovoidea, compressa ; testa membranacea, atra. 

 Herbse brasilienses ; foliis radicabbus coriaceis, carinatis, spinoso-den- 

 tatis, scapis simplicibus aut ramosis; floribus dense spicatis, singulis 

 spatbaceo-bracteatis. 



37. SISYRINCHLUM majale; radice carnoso-fasciculata ; scapo compresso, 

 gracili, subsimpbci, superne striato, foliis subduplo breviore ; foliis line- 

 ari-ensiformibus, conduplicato-vaginantibus, longitudinaliter striatis, 

 margine superiore dorsoque evanescente scabris, acuminatis; spatbis 

 multifloris; bracteis membranaceis, bifidis, albidis ; perigonii foliobs 

 aureis, epunctatis aut versus basin unipunctatis, elongato-obovatis apice 

 obsolete-dentatis, retusis, mucronatis; staminibus stylisque flavis ; nla- 

 mentis basi monadelpbis, inferne piloso-glandulosis ; stigmatibus filifor- 

 mibus; germine piloso-glanduloso. Link, Klotzsch $■ Otto, ic. t. 10. 



The seeds of this plant were received from Valparaiso by 

 Hunneman, in the year 1832. It has a perennial fleshy 

 fasciculated root, an herbaceous simple forked stem, from one 

 to one foot and a half high, surmounted by 6 or 8 yellow 

 flowers, which develope themselves one after another. It has 

 been cultivated in an almost open greenhouse at Berlin. It 

 flowers in February and March. When it has blossomed 

 the stem and leaves decay : it may then be left to dry, and in 

 autumn it may be placed in fresh earth in a cool greenhouse. 

 It may be propagated by division of the roots, or by seed. 



