34 



1IKI.< )XIAS BULLATA. STUD-FL< >WER. 



are the leading ones. Of the genus Helonias there arc few 

 species, and even these have been placed in other genera by 

 various botanists. 



J felon las bid la I a has a good deal of interest, even to the com- 

 mon observer. The roots are said to be "tuberous" by the 

 describers, but so far as our experience goes there is only a 

 simple fleshy root stock, extending deep down into the ground, 

 from which numerous fibres grow. The plant flowers in May, 

 and the leaves of the old year sometimes remain on during the 

 winter, and then do justice to the description, " about as long as 

 the scape." In our specimen, kindly furnished by Mr. I. C. 

 Martindale from a locality not far from Camden, N. J., the old 

 leaves are gone, and the new ones not fully developed. The 

 " nearly naked scape " is seen to have four or five very small 

 scale-like bracts, and a great peculiarity noticeable is this, that 

 there is neither any sign of scales just under the pedicels (which 

 in fact is not uncommon in many plants), nor of what we might 

 call "decurrence" or running down in the pedicels. The stem, it 

 will be seen, is entirely round, and the flowers come out at right 

 angles, and seem as smooth at the connection with the main 

 stem as if they were pins stuck in. This singular appearance is 

 heightened by the color. There is no shading off, as is general 

 in nature. There is an immediate change from the preen main 

 stem to the purple of the pedicel. It is an additional point of 

 singularity that when the flower fades the pedicels become green. 



The plant has no common name that we know of. A quaint 

 old English writer says that it "comes from America, where 

 it grows only near Philadelphia, and is called ' Star-flower' by 

 the natives." But this is no doubt a mistake, as the "Star-flower ,, 

 of the "natives" there, as elsewhere in the United States, is the 

 Hypoxis. The generic name Helonias is said to be derived from 

 the Greek, signifying a swamp, and is given from the fact that 

 the plant grows in swampy places, though it does not affect these 

 situations more than many other plants ; and bullala is from the 

 Latin " bulla," which is the name of round " nail-heads " or 



