PLATE XLI. 



1. PANCRATIUM MARITIMUM. 



SEA PANCRATIUM. 



THIS genus contains plants of the bulbous-rooted flowery peren- 

 nial kind. 



It belongs to the class and order Hcxandria Monogynia, and ranks 

 in the natural order of Spathacea. 



The characters are: that the calyx is an oblong spathe, obtuse, 

 compressed, opening on the flat side, shrivelling: the corolla has six 

 petals, lanceolate, flat, inserted into the tube of the nectary on the 

 outside above the base: nectary one-leafed, cylindric-funnel-form, 

 coloured at top, with the mouth spreading and twelve-cleft : the sta- 

 mina have six filaments, awl-shaped, inserted into the tips of the nec- 

 tary, and longer than they are: anthers oblong, incumbent: the 

 pistillum is a bluntly three-cornered germ, inferior : style filiform, 

 longer than the stamens : stigma blunt : the pei icarpium is a roundish 

 capsule, three-sided, three-celled, three-valved : the seeds several, 

 globular. 



The species cultivated are: 1. P. maritimum, Sea Pancratium; 

 2. P. Illyricum, Illyrian Pancratium; 3. P. Zeylanicum, Ceylonese 

 Pancratium ; 4. P. Mexicamim, Mexican Pancratium ; 5. P. Cari- 

 baum, Caribean Pancratium; 6. P. Carolinianum, Carolina Pancra- 

 tium ; 7- P' Amboinense, Broad-leaved Pancratium ; 8. P. Verecun- 

 dum, Narcissus-leaved Pancratium. 



The first has a large, coated, bulbous root, of an oblong form, 

 covered with a dark skin : the leaves are shaped like a tongue ; are 

 more than a foot long, and one inch broad, of a deep green, six or 

 seven of them rising together from the same root, encompassed at 

 bottom with a sheath: between these arises the stalk, which is a foot 



