ITJIDACE.^. 139 



on the race-course in the village of "Woodford; there is no garden 

 near, and no probability of its having been cultivated in the neigh- 

 bourhood (Mr. James Lynam). In a coarse meadow in the opening of 

 the wood half a mUe north of Woodford (]\Ir. James LjTiam, in a letter 

 addressed to Dr. Mackay, 1847). Mrs. ^lathews, in a letter to the 

 late Dr. Mackay, describes the plant as having been observed by her 

 in two places more than a mile apart, in a wet ditch by the side of a 

 mountain road adjoining a stony moor, and in another similar marshy 

 place abounding with Narthecium, Anagallis teneUa, Habenaria bifoUa, 

 Drosera rotundifolia, and other bog plants." 



Ireland. Perennial. Summer. 



Stems in tufts simple or forked, 6 to 15 inches high, in the Irish 

 plant with Avings about the breadth of the .solid part. Leaves grass- 

 like, equitant, shorter than the stems. Spathe of two lanceolate 

 sharply folded acute valves of nearly equal length, shorter than the 

 flower, but one of the valves sometimes longer than the fruit. Flowers 

 1 to 6, on slender pedicels. Perianth segments f inch long, very 

 delicate in texture, deep blue within, nearly white outside. Fruit 

 about the size of a sweet-pea seed. Seeds dull black, subglobular, 

 rough. 



The Irish plant is tlie ty|:)ical S. Bermudiana of Asa Gray's ^lanual. 

 The variety anceps (S. anceps, Cav.), to which our plant is referred 

 by Professor Babington, has broader leaves and much more broadly 

 winged stems, and has the valves of the spathe very unequal, one of 

 them much longer than the flowers. 



The variety mucronatum (S. mucronatum, 31iclix.), to which Mr. 

 Bentham says the Irish specimens are much nearer, has the leaves 

 considerably narrower, and the stem is more slender and with very 

 narrow -wings. The spathe has the leaves unequal, and one of them 

 longer than the flowers. 



Blue SisyrincMum. 



GENUS II.—T RICHONEMA. Kerr. 



Perianth regular, petaloid; tube scarcely extending beyond the 

 ovary ; hmb 6 -partite ; segments all nearly similar, ascending-re- 

 curved. Stamens 3, erect, inserted in the throat of the tube of the 

 perianth ; filaments free, hairy ; anthers affixed by the base. Ovary 

 adlieiing to the tube of the perianth, short, ovoid-trigonous, coloured ; 

 style elongate, filiform ; stigmas 3, linear, involute, bipartite. Capsule 

 of the consistence of parchment, ovoid, bluntly 3-lobed, loculicidally 



t2 



