PARDANTHUS. 251 
by the trade as Ismene Knightii, but it is now called 
Hymenocallis calathina (Page 158). 
PARDANTHUS. 
Blackberry Lily, or Leopard Flower. 
This handsome flower is not a lily, as its popular 
name implies, but belongs to the Iris family. Its 
name, Pardanthus chinensis, is derived from pardos, 
leopard, and anthos, a flower—hence leopard flower; 
and chinensis means of China. The Chinese Leopard 
Flower was formerly very common in gardens, but like 
many another deserving plant, has given way to the 
universal craze for novelties. The stem grows three or 
four feet high, branches at the top, where it bears regu- 
lar flowers of an orange color, and abundantly dotted 
with crimson or reddish-purple spots. One great merit 
of the Leopard flower is that it is late flowering, being 
in bloom from midsummer to September. After the 
pretty flowers have faded, the capsules grow on and 
enlarge, and when quite ripe the walls of the capsules 
break away and curl up, leaving a central column of 
shining, black-coated seed, looking so much like a well- 
developed, ripe blackberry, that the fruit, if not so 
handsome as the flower, is, quite as interesting, and 
shows that in this instance it does not require any effort 
of the imagination to see the applicability of perhaps its 
most common name—the Blackberry Lily. The plant 
is hardy in most of the Northern States, but the French 
florists say that it does not endure the winters of Paris 
without protection. It is a tuberous-rooted, herbaceous 
perennial, requiring a rich, sandy loam soil, and a shel- 
tered situation in winter. It is propagated in spring by 
seeds, or by division of the roots. A plant, together 
with its flowers and fruit, is seen in the engraving, 
on Page 252. This plant is now botanically known as 
Belamcanda chinensis. See engraving on next page. 
