PLATE LX. 



1. WACHENDORFIA PANICULATA. 



PANICLED WACHENDORFIA. 



THIS genus furnishes plants of the exotic flowering perennial 

 kind, for the green-house. 



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

 in the natural order of EnsatcK. 



The characters are : that the calyx is a two-valved spathe : the 

 corolla six-petalled, unequal: petals oblong, the three upper ones 

 more erect, three lower spreading: nectary of two bristles at the 

 inner sides of the upper petal: the stamina has three filiform fila- 

 ments, declined, shorter than the corolla: anthers incumbent: the 

 pistillum is a superior germ, roundish, three-cornered: style filiform, 

 declined: stigma simple: the pericarpium is a subovate capsule, 

 three-sided, obtuse, three-celled, three-valved : seeds solitary, rough- 

 haired. 



The species cultivated are: 1. W. thyrsiflora, Simple-stalked 

 Wachendorfia; 2. W. panicuhita, Panicled Wachendorfia; 3. W. hir- 

 suta, Hairy Wachendorfia. 



The first has a thick tuberous root, reed-like, of a deep-red 

 colour, sending out many perpendicular fibres of the same colour, 

 and spreading into several offsets: the leaves, which rise immediately 

 from the root, are large, with five plaited folds ; the biggest are two 

 feet long, and three inches broad, of a deep green colour: the 

 flower-stalk rises from the centre of the heads between the leaves to 

 the height of three or four feet, with leaves of the same form with 

 those below, but narrower, and ranged alternately, embracing the 

 stalk half round with their base: the flowers when young are enclosed 



