76 



On a Winter-Floaatering State of Hypoxis 

 PUSiLLA, J. Hooker 5 



AND 



ON THE DIFFEBENTIAL CHARACTERS OF THAT SPECIES. 



By Professor Halph Tate, Assoc. Lin. Soc, P.G-.S., &c. 



[Read June 13, 1882.] 



Pasture lands on slaty hill-slopes and loamy flats are abun- 

 dantly adorned in tlie months of August and- September with 

 the bright yellow star-like blossoms of Hypoccis pusilla, J. Hook. ; 

 but on the 26th of May, while making close search for the 

 florets of the lowly Lacjenopliora empliijsopus, J. Hooker, whicli 

 1 detected in numbers on the pasture slopes of the slaty hills 

 near Belair, overlooking the Adelaide Plain, I was attracted 

 by the matured capsule of a minute lily-like plant. Further 

 exploration revealed the fact that the scanty herbage was 

 largely constituted of the filiform leaves of this species, which 

 presents the salient characters of Hypoxis pusill a ; but not one 

 of the very many plants examined exhibited expanded flowers. 

 In all stages of flowering the perianth segments were closely 

 adpressed to form a green erect column to the ovary. A few 

 days later I examined the North Adelaide Park Lands at spots 

 wliich I knew to be yellow with the flowers of this species at a 

 more advanced season, with similar results. These early 

 flowering examples are evidently cleistogamous, the floral 

 envelopes never expanding, and their self -fertilising powers is 

 attested by the abundance of seeds in every capsule. Similar 

 phenomena are exhibited by Salvia verhennca, which has become 

 a troublesome weed, far beyond the limits of the city, during 

 the last five years'. 



The chief botanical characters belonging to this form are as 

 follows : — Subterranean portions of leaves and scapes enclosed 

 in. a membranous sheath, the short, bronze, scarious, ovate,, 

 acutely pointed lamina of which appears just above ground. 

 The leaves do not exceed three inches, are filiform with revolute 

 margins rather than channelled; in number never less than 

 two, sometimes three or four. Flowering scape usually very 

 .short and one-flowered; sometimes the ovary is not raised above 

 the surface of the ground, whilst in others it is lengthened to 

 half an inch. Two setaceous bracts, usually opj)osite, are 

 -situate at about the middle of the scape. As the ovary ripens- 



