86 GAEBTA ELLIPTICA. 



Botanical writers a corm, and differs from the true bulb in being entirely solid. 

 The corm, as well as the tuber, is regarded as an underground stem, the true roots 

 being produced from the under surface of the corm. They contain a considerable 

 quantity of nutritive starchy matter ; and, together with those of the Gladioli and 

 other similar plants, are often employed as food by the wild tribes of South Africa, 

 in the absence of more palatable substances. 



There are, at least, a dozen or more species of Tritonia, but none are so showy as 

 the present member of the genus. 



The anthers of the plants, composing the order Iridacea, are usually affixed by 

 their base to the filaments ; but in the genus Tritonia, the filaments are attached to 

 the back of the anthers, near the middle, and, in botanical phraseology, these 

 are therefore versatile. The direction in which they point varies in the different 

 species; and, from this circumstance, the genus has been named Tritonia, from 

 Triton, a weathercock. 



GARRYA ELLIPTICA. 



Oval-leaved Garrya. 

 Linnean Class— Dkecia. Order — Tetkandria. Natural Order — Garryaceje. 



Or the numerous plants introduced from North America by the lamented Douglas, 

 many were doubtless more showy, but few excited, to a greater degree, the curiosity 

 of Botanists than the Garrya elUptica. 



Its flowers, borne in long pendulous racemes, at once suggest a resemblance to 

 the catkins of the Hazel, Oak, and other members of the order Cupuliferes ; but the 

 structure of the Garrya differs, in several important points, from the plants just 

 named, and, indeed, from any other known order. 



The most remarkable distinctions between the two orders are, first, the absence 

 in Garryacecc of the concentric zones of the wood, which in the Cupuliferous tribe, 

 and nearly all other Exogens (». e. plants with reticulated leaves and two coty- 

 ledons), mark the annual growth of the plant. Further, the leaves are without the 

 stipules, or leaf-like appendages, to be seen at the base of the foot-stalk of the Beech, 

 Oak, Spanish Chestnut, and the other members of the order previously referred 

 to ; and instead of being alternate, are in opposite pairs. The female flowers are 

 also destitute of the cupnle, or cup-like organ, so conspicuous in the fruit of the 



