GLEANINGS AND ORIGINAL MEMORANDA. 
73 
343. Drimiopsis maculata. A greenliouse bulbous plants of little beauty, from the Cape of 
Belongs to 
Good Hope. FloAvers green and wln'te, 
Lilyworts. Introduced by the Horticultural Society. 
(Fig. 172.) 
Among .some bulbs received by the Iloriicultural Society 
from the Cape, came up the present plant, of which we can 
find no trace in books. From a white fleshy bulb there rise^a 
few broad, fleshy, oblong leaves, six or eight inches long, 
rolled up at their base, so as to form a kind of channelled 
petiole ; they are abundantly clouded w ith dark gi*een oblong 
stains upon a paler ground. The scape, which is taper, and 
about as long as the leaves, is terminated by a close raceme 
of half-closed campanulate flowers ; the lower of wliich are 
green and penJulous, the upper white and erect Botli sepals 
and petals are herbaceous, ovate, cucuUate, concave, and united 
at the base ; the petals are rather shorter and broader than 
the sepals. The stamens are six, equal ; their filaments in- 
serted by a broad base upon the sepals and petals ; the anthers 
are ovate and turned inwards. The ovary is ovate, roundish, 
undivided, gradually tapered into a style with a simple minute 
stigma ; in each of its three cells stand erect a pair of anatropal 
collateral ovules. It is evident from this description, that the 
plant cannot be a Drimia, to some of which, especially jPr* Za?*- 
cecefolia^ it bears a certain resemblance ] for it wants the petaloid 
spreading petals of that genua. Neither can it be a Lachenalia^ 
because of its twin collateral ovules, and herbaceous perianth. 
We therefore propose it as a new genus, with the following 
character : — 
Drimiopsis. Perianthium herbaceum campanulatum sub- 
cequale. Stamina sequalia, epipetala. Ovarium in stylum 
attenuatum ; ovula gemina, collateralia — Herbse lidloscEf foliis sitccalcnflsy scapo 
racemoso, comd destUuto, 
Wallic 
LORA. Martius. {alius Waliicliia oblon- 
stemless tropical Palm, requiring a stove. 
Native of Assam. Plowered at Kew. 
" Dr. Hooker remarks, it is common in damp forests at the foot of the Eastern 
Himalaya, extending at least as far west as Kamaon, where Dr. Thomson found it 
at an elevation of about 2000 feet above the level of the sea. It is a very elegant 
Palm, and very beautiful when in fructification. The male and female spadices 
appe:u^ on the same plant, and arise from among a tuft of strong coarse fibres : the 
former enveloped in large imbricated spathas of a dark purple, streaked with 
yellow : these separate, and then a dense cluster of male spadices appear, of a nearly 
wiiite colour. The male spadix is a compound spike, with violet-coloured ovaries. 
Such a plant is well suited to commemorate Dr. Wallich*s labours in the field of 
science. His extended knowledge and his splendid works on Indian Botany, his 
liberal contributions to Kew and to every celebrated garden in Europe and the 
Colonies, and his generous and encouraging bearing to every student of plants, 
justly entitle him to a name among the 'Princes of the Vegetable Kingdom:* a 
name, too, given by his predecessor m the Directorship of the Calcutta Garden, 
Dr. Roxburgh." 
"It is seldom that we have an opportunity of ofiering remarks on the cultiva- 
tion of Palms : this may in part be attributed to the want of show in their 
flowers, and the general loftiness of growth of the majority of the family. But 
the species figured may be viewed as an exception, for it is not only a dwarf or 
stemless Palm, but its large bunch of male flowers is conspicuous on account of 
its singular-colom-ed spatha. Being a native of India, it requires the heat of a tropical stove, and grows freely in any 
kind of light 
garden-soil not retentive of water. 
introduced 
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