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showed me tliat tliis was no other than the ^'Oloriosa siipcrha" 

 of Linnssus — the '* Methonica superha " of Jussieu, well 

 known, I doubt not, to all the members of the Society, but 

 which was certainly unfamiliar to me. Its habitat being the 

 Malabar coast, it has probably been brought to the Island at 

 an early period of the immigration of the Indians hither, 

 but from the manner in which it spreads it has evidently 

 found the climate and soil suitable. "When cultivated in Con- 

 servatories in Europe it occasionally flowers, but I doubt if 

 those flowers can display their peculiar colours with so much 

 vividness and beauty, as they do when flourishing in luxu- 

 riance as weeds in our gardens in iTanritius. 



'• The ^'Gloriosa" belongs to the Liliacece and is accordingly 

 a Monocotyledonous plant. The perianth is six-leaved, the 

 stamens are six, inserted in the perianth and roand the ovary ; 

 the anthers, as characteristic of the Lily Order are introrse ; 

 ovary free, three celled ; one style, with three cleft stigma , 

 and the fruit trilocular. There is no separate calix and 

 corona, but only the brilliant six-leaved perianth or perigone. 



" The root is net a bulb which perhaps is the form more 

 generally found in this Order, bat may rather be termed 

 fleshy corn, not unlike a piece of ginger, with a few fibres on 

 the under side opposite to the stem. The structure is of 

 spherical cells closely compacted and of various sizes forming 

 with its rich juicy appearance an abundant source of nourish- 

 ment to the plant, however ambitiously it may climb. The 

 stalk or stem is about the thickness of a quill, having a 

 smooth rind as outer covering. The cells composing its in- 

 terior structure are less compact than those of the root, and 

 interspersed towards the centre with larger cells, some of 

 vvhich clearly display the spiral form. Surrounding this 



