2?3 



leaves two or three, inclosed at the base in a white shealh, filiform, 

 dotted with white, keeled at bottom, flat, or a little convex on the 

 back, weak, and more or less lying on the ground : scape flexuose- 

 erect, slender, about half a foot high, roundish, terminated by a 

 spreading umbel of from three to seven flowers: the valves of the 

 spathe lanceolate, acute, membranaceous, opposite, sometimes equal, 

 sometimes not, pale: the peduncles filiform, one-flowered, unequal, 

 from one to two inches in length: flowers without scent, coming out 

 successively: petals white within, purplish without, oblong, lanceo- 

 late, three lines in length; the three inner bluntish; the three outer 

 acute, with a blunt greenish keel: anthers purple: germ three-cor- 

 nered, green: style while, swelled out at bottom into a body larger 

 than the germ, plaited at bottom; thence awl-shaped, bluntly three- 

 cornered, the length of the stamens: stigma obscurely trifid : capsule 

 subglobular, three-cornered : the whole plant is smooth. It is a 

 native of the Cape, flowering in November. 



Culture. These plants are readily increased by off-sets from the 

 roots, which should be separated from the old roots about every third 

 year, in the summer season, as soon as their leaves begin to decay, 

 in the same manner as other bulbous roots. 



They may also be increased by seeds, which should be sown in 

 the latter end of August, in a border of light bog earth. The plants 

 should remain in this situation till the second summer, and be then 

 taken up at the proper period and planted in beds, till they begin to 

 flower, when they should be removed into the borders. In this way 

 they are three or four years before they flower. 



The best method is, to procure the roots from the nurserymen, 

 and plant them in the beginning of the autumn, in an eastern or 

 northern border, where the soil is of a boggy quality, in patches of 

 three or four together, in the fronts, putting them in to the depth of 

 about three or four inches. 



The off-sets should be planted out in beds a year or two after 

 being taken off, till fit to be set ont for flowering. 



A soft loamy soil, or a mixture of loam and bog earth, are the 



'i >r 



