188 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
inch across, varying in colour from dull purple to dull flesh-colour or 
even white. Anthers maroon; the pollen reddish-maroon, Capsule 
shortly oblong-prismatic, a little more than 1 inch long, with 6 rather 
prominent angles. Seeds brown, about } inch across, with a narrow 
margin. 
Purple Martagon Lily. 
French, Is Martagon. German, Tiirkenbund-Lilie. 
GENUS VIUI—FRITILLARIA. Tournef. 
Perianth coloured, bellshaped; perianth leaves 6, caducous, free at 
the base, erect, sometimes slightly recurved at the apex, with an 
orbicular or furrowlike nectariferous pore in the concave base, not 
papillose on the inside. Stamens 6, subadherent to the base of the 
perianth leaves; anthers affixed by their back to the filaments, ex- 
trorse. Style elongate, cylindrical; stigma long, deeply 3-partite. 
Capsule trigonous or hexagonal, with 3 or 6 furrows, 3-celled, locu- 
licidally 3-valved. Seeds numerous, in two rows in each cell, hori- 
zontal, discoid, flat on both sides, margined or winged ; testa somewhat 
spongy, brown or yellowish-brown. 
Herbs with scaly bulbs, the scales often few in number and very thick. 
Stem leafy, the leaves sessile, alternate or verticillate. Flowers large, 
showy, pendulous, solitary and terminal or racemose or verticillate. 
The name of this genus is said to come from fritillus, a dice-box, which the form of 
the blossoms is supposed to resemble ; while the specific name, pedreaypic (also applied 
to the Guinea-hen, Numida Meleagris), is descriptive of its chequered appcarance— 
not unlike that of a chess-board. 
SPECIES I—FRITILLARIA MELEAGRIS. Lin. 
Prats MDXIX. 
Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ. et Helv. Vol. X. Tab. CCCCXLII. Fig. 974. 
Billot, ¥). Gall. et Germ. Exsice. No. 1077. 
Bulb depressed-subglobular, with 2 large thick opposite exterior 
scales. Stem slender. Leaves all alternate, rather distant, strap- 
shaped, attenuated at both ends, dim and slightly glaucous above, 
shining and dark green beneath. Flowers solitary, very rarely 2 or 3 
in a raceme, pendulous, campanulate-cupshaped, tesselated with pale 
and dark purple or maroon, about as long as wide. Perianth leaves 
elliptical-oblong, not recurved at the apex; the three outer with a 
blunt ridge at the base on the outside; nectariferous pores narrow, 
elongate. Capsule oblong-ovoid, bluntly trigonous. 
In damp meadows. Rare. It has occurred in the counties of 
