51 



the root-leaves are numerous, only one-third of the height of the 

 scape, subulate, channelled at the base, then keeled and flat, 

 striated, an inch and half broad, and spreading: the scape four feet 

 high, almost naked, round, smooth and oblique: the bractes five, 

 gibbous at the base, pressed close, subulate, the lower ones larger 

 like the leaves, the upper ones scaly and shrivelling: the corymb 

 terminating, compressed, having six round, long, alternate branches, 

 knotted where the flowers spring forth: the flowers alternate, soli- 

 tary, or two, sometimes three together, on small gray pedicels, thicker 

 at the top, each supported by a little subulate bracte: the corolla 

 inferior: the petals lanceolate-ovate, reflex, obtuse, concave at the 

 tip, white, except towards the end on the outside, where they are 

 brownish green : the filaments a little shorter than the corolla: an- 

 thers erect, oblong, revolute as they wither: the root similar to that 

 of the Hcemanthus puniceus. It is a native of the Cape of Good 

 Hope. 



In the second species the root is round, and the stalks rise about 

 the same height as the former, sending out many lateral branches in 

 like manner, which are terminated by loose spikes of flowers: the 

 leaves are hard and grassy, none on the scape, which is loosely pa- 

 nicled, with one-flowered peduncles: the corollas white: the petals 

 flat, and not turning back as in the former sort: the three outer petals 

 narrower than the others, lanceolate and sessile: the three inner oval 

 and petioled. In each angle of the germ a small melliferous pore. 

 It is a native of Sweden, &c. The flowers watch from seven in the 

 morning to three or four in the afternoon. 



The third has the roots composed of many tubers, each about the 

 size of a little finger at top, and diminishing gradually to the size of 

 a straw : the leaves from seven or eight, to nine or ten inches in 

 length, and an inch and half broad in the middle, lessening gra- 

 dually to both ends; they are smooth and glaucous: the flower-stem 

 about two feet high, dividing into several branches, having a few 

 narrow leaves, generally one at every division of the branch: the 

 flowers form a loose spike, and are white. This plant has been 



