344 Dr Graham's Description of' New or Rm-e Plants. 



ing introduced with some caution into the blue flame, without 

 being previously mixed with any re-agent. 



All the minerals which contain barytes colour the flame pale 

 green, tinged with white ; the re-action is very distinct ; the co- 

 lour only shews itself when the matter begins to melt, but it 

 gradually becomes more beautiful, and lasts a long time. 



Most minerals which contain copper, even in very small 

 quantity, yield a beautiful green colour at the point of the blue 

 cone. The lead ores, which contain a little copper, produce a 

 flame of a beautiful blue colour, with the extremity green. 



Annales des Mines, t. v. p. 36. 



Description of' several New or Rare Plants which have lately 

 flowered in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, and chiefly in 

 the Royal Botanic Garden. 



\Ot.h Sept. 1829. 

 Alstroemeria pallida. 



A. pallida ; caule erecto-flaccido ; t'ollis lanceolato-linearibus, denticula- 

 tis, subamplexicaulibus ; petalis exterioribus obovatis, lateralihus la-- 

 tioribus, interioribus longioribus, lanceolatis ; pedunculis unifloris. 



Description Stem simple, slender, flaccid, round, as well as the leaves 



glauco-pruinose, several rising from the same root. Leaves scattered, ses- 

 sile, half stem clasping, sparingly denticulate, lanceolato-linear, flat above, 

 keeled behind, and with several parallel ribs, of which one on each side 

 is stronger than the others. Floioer, in the only specimen which lias yet 

 blossomed, solitary, terminal ; the leaves are, however, crowded towards 

 the base of the peduncle, and there seems little reason to doubt, that, 

 from the axils of these, in a more vigorous state of the plant, several 

 flowers will spring. Perianth of six unequal segments, attenuated, suc- 

 culent, and channelled and nectariferous at the base ; four outer seg- 

 ments of uniform, very pale rose colour, much reticulated, nearly of 

 equal length, obovate, the lowest the narrowest and most pointed, and 

 much the least attenuated at the base, the two lateral the largest, den- 

 ticulated, all slightly acuminated in the middle ; the two inner seg- 

 ments longer than the others, lanceolate, having denticulate wings to- 

 wards their bases, of the same colour as the outer segments at their api- 

 ces, lower down with reddish veins, above the middle on a yellow, below 

 it on a pink ground, at the lower part of which there are a few oblong 

 orange sj)ots. Stamens six ; filaments as long as the outer segments of 

 the perianth, and of a similar colour, flattened, at the base triangular 

 and glanduloso-pubescent, twisted when decaying ; anthers erect, large, 

 cordate, flattened, mucronulate ; pollen pale brown, discharged as in 

 the genus. Stigmata 3, revolute, pink ; style 3-cornered, tapering uj). 

 wards from its green .sh persisting base, colourless below, becoming pink 

 towards the stigmata ; germen as in A. pelegrina. 

 This remarkably beautiful species, the colours of which harmonize more 

 than in any other in cultivation, flowered in the collection of Mr Neill 

 at Canonmills in July last. We have the same species at the Botanic 

 Garden, raised from seeds sent by Dr Gillies from South America, but 

 it has not vet flowered. 



