AND THEIR CULTURE. 135 



"2 and 3 feet high, thick, rounded, and glabrous. It is brown at the 

 base in consequence of the great number of small reddish brown lines 

 scattered over its green surface, its upper portion is unspotted. The 

 numerous leaves are alternate, and scattered equally over the stem, 

 linear-lanceolate in outline, acute at the point, narrowed at the base, 

 -with five or seven nerves prominent on the lower surface, slightly chan- 

 neled above ; they spread widely, and offer at their extreme base a 

 transverse callosity. They are very small at the base of the stem, where 

 they soon dry up, and gradually increase in size upwards ; the three 

 or four uppermost form a kind of false verticil at the base of the 

 flower-stalk : these attain a length of 20 centimetres (about 8 inches). 

 The flower is solitary, and very large and beautiful. It is of pure 

 white in the interior, and even on the exterior of the three petals, 

 which have only their prominent median nerve coloured of a purplish 

 brown colour. This same tint is spread over the outer face of the 

 sepals, which are margined with white. I have always found an 

 agreeable and rather strong perfume in the flower, though according 

 to M. Lemaire it is completely scentless, and in the opinion of 

 M. Planchon nearly so. The flower is tubular, bell-shaped, with a 

 spreading re volute limb ; the petals are much wider than the sepals, 

 the stamens are bent downwards and have greenish awl-shaped 

 filaments, supporting large brown anthers filled with reddish brown 

 pollen. The stamens are as long as the tube of the flower, and are 

 greatly exceeded in length by the style, which is much bent downwards 

 and terminated by a deeply 3-lobed orange yellow stigma. Duchartre. 



In order to clear up the difference between the two forms, Odorum and Broii-nii, we 

 adduce the following observations. 



Having grown twenty-five plants of L. Odorum side by side in 1878 with one hundred 

 plants of L. Brownii, we have noted the following differences. 



L. Japonicum. L. Brownii. 



Bulb white or whitish yellow, never Bulb on exposure to light assumes a red 

 red or brown, broad at base ; the scales or reddish brown tint, the scales are broad, 

 which are somewhat narrow and acute at and all pass up overlapping, and terminate 

 iip, differ in length, the outer ones termi- together at the apex of the bulb, thus 

 nating a"t about the height of the inner giving it the peculiar shape (figured on page 

 scales. 96) known as oblate in form, the base being 



curiously constricted, much narrower than 



the apex. 



Bud when about 1 inch above ground. 



Green ; leaves broad and blunt, edged At first reddish brown with no green ; 



with a thin brown line showing a darker apex acute ; at about the height of 1 5 inch, 



tinted venation ; apex, round, flat, blunt, a little green shows under the red bracts ; 



resembling that of Longiflorum, resernbling that of Auratum. 



