LIMACE^. 193 



on the back. Stamens G, adhering to the base of the perianth leaves ; 

 anthers inserted by their base upon the filaments. Style trigonous; 

 stigma minute, 3-lobed. Capsule ovoid-trigonous, loculicidally 3-valved. 

 Seeds few or several, subglobose ; testa rather soft, pale-yellowish. 



Herbs with bulbs consisting of few scales. Leaves radical, Imear- 

 lorate. Scapes with an involucre of leallike bracts at the base of a 

 few-flowered subumbellate corymb of yellow flowers, opening in the 

 forenoon and only in fine weather. 



The name of this genus was given in honour of Sir Thomas Grage, a Suffolk 

 botanist and cultivator of flowers. 



SPECIES I— G A G E A LUTE A. Ker. 



Plate MDXXII. 



Bekli. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. X. Tab. CCCCLXXVII. Fig. 1045. 

 Ornithogalum luteum, Linn. Sm. Engl. Bot. ed. i. No. 21 ; and Engl. Fl. Vol. II. 

 p. 142. 



Bulb ovate, subglobular, solitary, usually producing numerous 

 minute bulbules at the base. Radical leaves commonly solitary, 

 strapshaped, rather abruptly pointed, 3- to 5-ribbcd. Stem leafless, 

 with the exception of 2 unequal subopposite bracts immediately below 

 the umbel. Peduncles glabrous. Perianth leaves oblanceolate-oblong, 

 glabrous on the back. 



In bushy places and pastures and woods. Rare, but widely dis- 

 tributed, extending from Somerset, Oxford, and Sussex, north to 

 ]\Ioray, Forfar, and Perth. 



England, Scotland. Perennial. Spring. 



P)ulb flowering Avhen about the size of a large pea ; only one enclosed 

 in the yellowish coats, but usually there are a number of bulbules 

 about the size of sago grains at the base. Radical leaf solitary, 6 to 

 18 inches long, usually a little exceeding the flowers, slender at the 

 base, which sheaths the stem, gradually enlarging upwards until beyond 

 the middle, deep green, sliglitly sliining, with 3, 5, or even 7 strong 

 ribs, and fainter intermediate ones. Stem 4 to 14 inches high, with- 

 out any leaves except those of the involucre, of which the longest 

 about equals the pedicels or slightly exceeds them, the second falls 

 short of tliem, and occasionally there is a third leaf which is still 

 shorter tlian the second. Pedicels 1 to 2 inches long, in a corymb 

 with so short a rachis that it quite resembles an umbel. Perianth 

 leaves about I inch long, yellow within, green wth yellow margins 

 on the outside, which are much broader on the three inner and 

 narrower leaves than on the three outer. The capsule I have never 

 seen. 



VOL. IX. C C 



