PARDANTHTTS. 251 



by the trade as Ismene Knightii, but it is now called 

 Hymenocallis calathina (Page 158). 



PARDANTHUS. 

 Blackberry Lily, or Leopard Flower. 



This handsome flower is not a lily, as its popular 

 name implies, but belongs to the Iris family. Its 

 name, Pardanthus chinensis, is derived from pardos, 

 leopard, and anthos, a flower hence leopard flower ; 

 and chinensis means of China. The Chinese Leopard 

 Flower was formerly very common in gardens, but like 

 many another deserving plant, has given way to the 

 universal craze for novelties. The stem grows three or 

 four feet high, branches at the top, where it bears regu- 

 lar flowers of an orange color, and abundantly dotted 

 with crimson or reddish -purple spots. One great merit 

 of the Leopard flower is that it is late flowering, being 

 in bloom from midsummer to September. After the 

 pretty flowers have faded, the capsules grow on and 

 enlarge, and when quite ripe the walls of the capsules 

 break away and curl up, leaving a central column of 

 shining, black-coated seed, looking so much like a well- 

 developed, ripe blackberry, that the fruit, if not so 

 handsome as the flower, is quite as interesting, and 

 shows that in this instance it does not require any effort 

 of the imagination to see the applicability of perhaps its 

 most common name the Blackberry Lily. The plant 

 is hardy in most of the Northern States, but the French 

 florists say that it does not endure the winters of Paris 

 without protection. It is a tuberous-rooted, herbaceous 

 perennial, requiring a rich, sandy loam soil, and a shel- 

 tered situation in winter. It is propagated in spring by 

 seeds, or by division of the roots. A plant, together 

 with its flowers and fruit, is seen in the engraving, 

 on Page 252. This plant is now botanically known as 

 Belamcanda chinensis. See engraving on next page. 



