Jed ANE I IL 
SPARAXIS PENDULA. 
Tue family of plants called Irn1pEx, to which the subjects of this and the two following 
plates belong, has its maximum at the Cape of Good Hope ; and, in the months of the spring and 
early summer of the southern hemisphere,—namely, from September to November, —the face 
of the country glitters with the blossoms of these beautiful bulbs. Countless species of Ivia, of 
Gladiolus, of Watsonia, of Babiana, of Sparavis and many other genera of this family spring up, 
one after another, as the season advances, until the hills and meadows are painted with 
rainbow colours. The Ivia, orange, pink or white ; the Watsonia, rose-coloured ; Babiana and 
Aristea, blue ; and Gladiolus and Sparavis tinted with every shade of colour, diversify the picture ; 
while Hesperantha, (the Avond-bloomjie of the Colonists) opening her pale flowers late in the 
evening perfumes the air with a delicious aroma, like that of the Night-blowing Stock. Those 
which I have named are perhaps the most striking, but there are many others that deserve notice. 
One little plant (Galavia), after the first rains, springs up in abundance by the roadsides, or even 
on the beaten surface of the parade ground at Capetown, and spangles the ground with golden 
stars, profusely lavished, but almost as fleeting as a meteor. It opens its flowers late in the 
morning and closes them, to open. no more, early in the afternoon: but the succession is 
continued, and every morning sees a new sheet of flowers displayed. Mixt with the Galaxia ave 
several species of Trichonema, of the same small size, and equally profuse of blossoms, but their 
colours are mostly shades of brilliant purple or pink, and their blossoms remain expanded for 
several days. 
But among the whole order, though there are many more gorgeously coloured and bolder 
growing flowers, perhaps there is none so graceful as the subject of our present plate, Sparawis 
pendula. And points of interest attach to it, besides those of grace and beauty. The botanist 
regards it with favour, not merely, like the florist, because it is a beautiful creation 3 but also 
because it stands at one of those turning points that define the limits of natural genera. Its 
technical characters are those of Sparaais; but its outward habit is a blending of that of 
Watsonia, of Antholyza and of Diusia, without being exactly that of any of these genera. It 
grows in dense tufts, often of considerable extent, and when out of flower, the tall, slender and 
rigid leaves, three feet in length, resemble those of the coarser kinds of sedge. From the midst 
of these leaves, which are perennial, rise up, in the flowering season, the slender wiry flower- 
stalks, four or five feet in length, divided above into several hair-like branches, which gracefully 
curve over and are drooped by the weight of the bell-shaped flowers. The flower-stalks are so 
slender that they move with the slightest breath of air, and the flowers appear to rise and fall as 
if they were living creatures dancing above the foliage. These flowers are so faithfully repre- 
sented in the drawing that it is needless to describe them minutely. Each is composed of six 
lance-shaped petals, united below into a short tube, and curving outwards toward the apex. 
The flower crowns a small ovary which is concealed between a pair of membranous, torn dracts, 
