No. 198. 
MALAXIS LILIFOLIA. 
Class. Order. 
GYNANDRIA ' MONANDRIA. 
This is a native of Pennsylvania, in moist 
places. It was cultivated by Peter Collin- 
son, fifty years ago, from whose plant a de- 
scription was given, by Ehret, in the Philo- 
sophical Transactions for 1763, accompanied 
by a good figure. It was formerly considered 
to be an Ophrys, but has been removed to 
this genus by Swartz. It requires to be kept 
in the shade. We have cultivated it now 
for many years with success in small pots, in 
a mixture of bog earth and loam. It flowers 
every year in the summer, lasting a long 
while ; but the bulbs have not increased. — 
There is a sort of resemblance in the 
flower, when seen at a little distance, to a 
winged insect of the gnat kind, which its 
extreme lightness and delicacy heightens. 
In this class of plants, it is indeed not un- 
usual, by a little help of the imagination, to 
be able to discover imitations, if they may 
1 
be 80 called, f i wich 
are — curious. 
