PLATE XXV. 



1. FRITILLARIA IMPERIALIS. 



CROWN IMPERIAL. 



This genus comprises plants of the bulbous-rooted perennial 

 flowery kind. 



It belongs to the class and order Hexandria Monogynia, and ranks 

 in the natural order of Corojiaria'. 



The characters are : that there is no calyx ; the corolla is six- 

 petalled, bell-shaped, spreading at the base: petals oblong, parallel: 

 nectary an excavation or pit in the base of each petal: the stamina 

 have six subulate filaments, approximating to the style, the length of 

 the corolla: anthers quadrangular, oblong, erect: the pistillum is an 

 oblong germ, three-cornered, obtuse: style simple, longer than the 

 stamens: stigma triple, spreading, blunt: (style trifid, with three stig- 

 mas:) the pericarpium is an oblong capsule, obtuse, ihree-lobed, 

 three-celled, three-valved (superior): the seeds very many, flat, semi- 

 orbicular on the outside, in a double row. 



The species are: 1. J^. meleagris, Common Fritillary, or Che- 

 quered Lily; 2. F. pyrenaica, Black Fritillary; 3. F. imperialis. Im- 

 perial Fritillary, or Crown Imperial; 4. -F. Persica, Persian Fritillary, 

 or Persian l-ii\y. 



In the first the root is a solid bulb or tuber, about the size of a 

 hazel nut, white or yellowish white, roundish, compressed, divisible 

 into several, enclosed by the withered wrinkled bulb of the preceding 

 year as in a case. The stem from six to twelve, fifteen, and even 

 eighteen inches in height, advancing considerably in length after 

 flowering; it comes out from the side of the root, is simple, upright, 

 round, smooth, glaucous, and not unfrequenlly purplish: the leaves 



