PA Ne 
BRUNSVIGIA MULTIFLORA. 
Tur lilies of the genus Brunsvigia are called by the Cape Colonists « Candelabra flowers,” 
because their columnar stem, crowned with numerous stalked flowers, all curved upwards and 
presenting their cups to the sky, has much resemblance to a branched candlestick. Several 
different kinds, haying all a similar habit, but differing in size and in the colour and shape of the 
flowers, are known to botanists. One of the most beautiful is here figured. The flower stem, 
which is strongly compressed or flattened, rises from a large, somewhat conical bulb, the lower 
part of which is sunk in the ground, and the upper, prolonged into a sort of neck, remains above 
the surface. The leaves and flowers appear at different seasons, one being in perfection in the 
rainy, the other in the dry months. The flower stem bears at its summit a pair of crimson 
bracts, which protect the young flowers till they are ready to expand. The inflorescence, 
though corymbose in appearance, is a true umbel. The outer rays, whose flowers are the first 
to open, are longest in our plate, but the footstalks of the inner circles lengthen as their flowers 
enlarge, and eventually all the stalks are nearly of equal length ; but, before this takes place, the 
outer flowers will have withered. 
These noble bulbous plants belong to the order Amaryllidee, a family known from the true 
lilies by having what is called an inferior ovary ; that is, having their seed vessel, as it were, 
outside and below the flower, instead of within the circle of the floral leaves. This obvious 
character marks the distinction between two large and very beautiful families of plants, the 
favourites of mankind from time immemorial. Comparatively few Amaryllidee are natives of 
Europe, but these few rank among the choicest treasures of our Spring, the Snowdrop, the 
Narcissus and the Daffodils of the poets, 
«* That come before the swallow dares, and take 
The winds of March with beauty.”’ 
In South Africa about one hundred species of Amaryllidez have been discovered, belonging 
to several genera peculiar to that part of the world. Some of them are minute plants smaller 
than our Snowdrops rearing their delicate bells or stars on slender, wiry stems. Others are 
of the grand character of the subject of our plate. The genera Belladonna, Nerine, Vallota, 
Cyrtanthus, Clivia and Hemanthus, are, besides Brunsvigia, the most remarkable. And it is 
not a little curious that while some of them, as Belladonna, may be cultivated in this country 
with ease, as border flowers, most of the others, though natives of the same country, require the 
temperature of the stove. The reason perhaps is that the Belladonna in its native country 
blossoms early, before the intensity of Summer commences, while almost all the others are in 
flower in the hottest and driest season, when other bulbous plants are taking their annual rest. 
When the troops of Iridez, which usher in the Spring, are withered away the Amaryllidez 
come forth, lifting their leafless stalks from the burnt-up ground, often the only vestige of life 
that the spot affords. Their power of enduring heat is very great, for they will flourish in soil 
