THE MEXICAN TIGER FLOWER. 



By Joseph Breck, Ex-President of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. 



The scientific name of these splendid flowers is Tigridia (formerly 

 Fcrraria)^ in allusion to the spotted flowers, which are marked some- 

 thing like the skin of the tigei*. We have two common species, which 

 are easily cultivated. The flowers of T. favonia are of the richest 

 scarlet imaginable, variegated with bright yellow, spotted with black. 

 T. concliijiora^ when planted with the scarlet variety, makes a pleasing 

 contrast. The flowers are of a rich orange, variegated with light yellow, 

 spotted with dark brown or black : there is a variety, also, without spots. 



Mr. Bernard M'Mahon, of Philadelphia, after an experience of thirty 

 years as gardener, florist, and seedsman, published, in iSo6, a very val- 

 uable work entitled the " American Gardener's Magazine," which was 

 a standard on the subject of horticultui-e for the time, and is still regarded 

 as a work of great merit by the present generation of horticulturists. 

 He gives the following minute and glowing description of this beauti- 

 ful flower, then a great novelty. He calls it the Mexican Ferraria^ or 

 Tiger Flower. 



" The Fcrraria tigridia of Curtis, or Ferraria -pavonia of Linnaeus 

 and Willdenow, is of such exquisite beauty as to merit particular atten- 

 tion. It is of the class Gynandria^ and order Ti-iandria. Its root is 

 a truncated bulb, producing from one to four stems, from eighteen inches 

 to two feet in height, composed of various joints, and bearing at each 

 a plicated, oblong, lanceolate leaf, from a sheathing petiole the length 



VOL. IX. s 6s 



