499 



in shcalhs, Mliicb, after some time, open and make way for the 

 flowers to come out; then they wither and dry, but remain upon the 

 stalk hke tliose of the yelh)w Asphodel : they form a loose spike, 

 and there are several upon one common peduncle, which open one 

 after the other: the upper flowers stand almost upright, but the 

 lower nod ; they are hairy and of a saftVon colour on the outside, 

 but smooth and yellow within. It is a native of the Cape, 



The second species, when in flower, is a foot high: the root 

 perennial, a little creeping, furnished with oblong cylindrical and 

 nearly ])erpendicular tubercles : the leaves radical, two-ranked, 

 sessile, equitant, vertical, spreading, dilated on the inner side at the 

 base, chamielled, linear-lanceolate, ])ointed, entire, nerved, bright 

 o-reen, very like those of the tirst, but only one-third of the size, 

 dying soon after the jjlaut has done flowering, and not appearing 

 again for some months: the stalk erect, cylindrical, bearing one or 

 two small leaves, branched, many-flowered: general flower-slalks 

 alternate, spreading, racemose, bearing from three to live flowers, 

 cylindrical, downy: partial ones short, downy, all directed upwards, 

 single-flowered. It is a native of the Cape. 



The third seems chiefly to differ from the second in having hairy 

 leaves, a more slender and taller stem, reddish-brown, and not green 

 as in it; its branches more divaricate, the two upper lateral petals 

 more contiguous, and its flowers when closed form a slenderer and 

 more compact column: the incumbent anthers seem also to be 

 shorter and rounder: the root-leaves oblong, lanceolate, three or 

 four, about three or four inches high: tiie stem about three times 

 their length: the segments traversed longitudinally on the outside by 

 a brown hairy fdlet; outer upper one wholly brown and pubescent 

 outwards: the flowers scentless, opening in succ(;ssion, closing to- 

 wards evening: they expand in the month of July. It is a native ot 

 the Cape. 



Cultine. — These plants may be increased by offsets, taken from 

 the heads of the roots, in the beginning of autumn, planting them in 

 pots filled with soft loamy eardi, mixed with a little sea sand, and 

 when the season proves dry, placing them so as t(^ have only the- 



