PLATE III. 



1. AGAPANTHUS UMBP:LLATUS. 



AFRICAN AGAPANTHUS. 



THIS genus comprehends the African Lily. 



It belongs to the class and order of Hexandria Monogynia, and 

 ranks in the natural order of Liliacece. 



The characters of which are: that the calyx is a spathe common, 

 gaping at the side: the corolla is one-petalled, funnel-shaped, and 

 regular; the tube cornered, as if composed of six claws; the border 

 six-parted, with the parts oblong and spreading: the stamina are six 

 filaments inserted into the throat, shorter than the corolla, declinate: 

 the antherae are kidney-shaped and incumbent: the pistillum is a 

 superior germ, oblong, three-cornered; the style filiform, of the 

 length of the stamina, and declinate ; the stigma simple or trifid : the 

 pericarpium is an oblong capsule, three-sided, three-celled, three- 

 valved: valves navicular, with contrary dissepiment : the seeds nume- 

 rous, oblong, compressed, and enlarged with a membrane. 



There is only one species, the A. umbeUntus, African Blue, or 

 Asphodel Lily. 



It has the root composed of many thick fleshy fibres, diverging 

 from the same head, striking deep i nto the ground, and putting out 

 many smaller fibres, which are of a white colour and fleshy. From 

 the same head arises a cluster of leaves surrounding each other at 

 the base, so as to form a kind of herbaceous stalk about three inches 

 in height, from which the leaves spread only two ways, appearing 

 flat in the other two. The leaves are thick, succulent, about a foot 

 long, and near an inch broad, compressed, and of a dark green co- 



