298 NEW PLANTS, ETC., FROM THE SOCIETY'S G.VRDEN. 



32. Vagaria parviflora. Herbert^ AmarylUd., p. 226. 

 Pancratium parvifiorum. Hedoute, Liliacies, vol. viii. t. 47 1 . 



Received from Bogota by C. B. Warner, Esq., and by him 

 presented to the Society in October, 1847. 



A bulbous plant, with oblong-, somewhat plaited, fleshy, dark- 

 green leaves, tapering into a distinct petiole, about 8 inches 

 long and 2\ broad, when full grown, pale green beneath, but 

 not at all glaucous. The scape, which bears an umbel of about 

 five flowers, is the same heiglit as the leaves, a little compressed, 

 and solid. The flowers are small, firm, white, with a greenish 

 tube, and a roundish, bluntly three-cornered three-celled ovary, 

 with two ovules suspended side by side to the middle of the axis 

 of each cell ; they have a weak agreeable odour, like that of new 

 hay ; their stalks are about an inch long. The spathes are 

 narrow, withered, brown membranes. Stamens erect, with a 

 broad acutely trifid filament ; anthers linear, attached by the 

 middle ; style straight ; stigma bluntly three-lobed. 



The flowers of this very rare plant have been well figured by 

 Redoutt^, but the leaves which he has represented do not belong 

 to it ; they are very like those of an unknown bulb, also from 

 Bogota, and received from Mr. Warner at the same time as 

 this. The leaves of V. parviflora are similar to those of a 

 Griftinia. Dean Herbert's conjecture that the species is a native 

 of Spain or Egypt is not confirmed by the discovery of its New 

 Grenada origin ; but at the same time the French report of its 

 being an Australian plant is contradicted. Whether or not it 

 may be referable to some one of the South American Pancra- 

 tioid forms of Amaryllids is not quite certain ; it, however, 

 appears to be different, and therefore Dr. Herbert's name is 

 retained. Certainly it is no Pancratium, for the filaments are 

 not joined into a cup. It is very near Eurycles, from which the 

 flower differs in nothing except in the anthers being fixed by the 

 middle instead of by the base. The fruit is at present unknown. 



A tender bulb, needing the protection of the greenhouse, and 

 requiring the same kind of treatment as Amaiyllis. It is best 

 grown in a mixture of sandy loam and a little rotten dung, and 

 s increased in the usual way. 



A neat, but not a very showy plant. 



Aug. 1849. 



END OF VOL. IV. 



London; I'rinteil by Wii.i.iam Clowks anU Sons, Slamford Street. 



