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“ARISTEA CYANEA. 
- Blue-flowered Ariftea. 
CLASS Ill. 
ORDER I. 
TRLANDRIA MONOGYNIA.  Three-Chives. 
One Pointal. 
GENERIC CHARACTER. 
‘Catyx. Spathz bivalves, lacerz, perfiftentes. 
Miiox:., hexapetala, oblonga, qualia, ebcor- 
' data, perfiftentia, patens. 
Filamenta tria, ere€ta, fubulata. 
_ Antheree fub-fimplices, magne. 
Pistittum. Germen inferum. Stylus filifor- 
mis, ereétus. Stigma trifidum, concavum, 
Capfula oblonga, triquetra, tri- 
PERICARPIUM. 
3 locularis, loculis compreffis, trivalvis. 
Empatement. Sheath two valves, ragged, and 
remaining. 
Brossom, of fix petals, oblong, equal, inverfely - 
heart-fhaped, remaining, fpreading. 
Cutves. Three threads, upright, awl-fhaped. 
Tips almoft fimple, and large. 
Ponta. Seed-bud beneath. Shaft thread- 
fhaped and erett. Summit cut into 
three, concave and reflected. 
Seep-vesset. Capfule oblong, three-fided, 
three cells, cells compreffed, three valves. 
Seeps many, flat, rough, nearly femicircular. 
— r Semina plura, compreffa, feabrida, fub-femi- 
Tey i! + . 
4 : SPECIFIC CHARACTER. 
Ariftea, foliis enfiformibus, radicalibus; floribus Ariftea with fword-fhaped leaves growing from 
capitatis, cyaneis, the root; the flowers grow in heads, a 
= are of a bright blue. 
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE. 
: 1. A Valve of the Sheath fpread open. — 
— 2. The Chives, Pointal, and Seed-bud, (magnified.) 
as _ 3. A perfeé Seed, (magnified.) 
Tue Ariftea is a native of the Cape of Good Hope, and has been defcribed under various fynony™ss 
PE. . as a Gramen, by Petiver as Bermudiana Capenfis, and by Van Royen, Burmann, and 
es _— se a _ Bee although differing from Linnzus is againft the fixed intention of this 
undertaking, where there is a poffibility of avoiding it; yet in this inflance of alteration he muft 
___ have acquiefeed, having undoubtedly never feen the plant himfelf. ‘The bloffom, feed-veffel, feeds 
— ie, : = gro lon: of the plant, fo totally differ from the chara@ter of Ixia, &c. that we have 
not hefitated, in accepting the name given it in the Hortus Kewenfis; where, it is faid to have been 
ages! to that colleétion, by Mr. F. Maffon in 1774; though no fpecific defcription is given of 
ag : ich we may conjecture, it never flowered there. The figure here given, was taken from 
which flowered at Meflrs. Lee and Kennedy's, in 1797. ‘The Ariftea being rather a delicate 
> Fequires an airy, warm fituation in the greenhoufe, flowering readily about the month of July, 
hae: Tequiring to be kept in a {mall pot, the foil a light loam, It propagates by feeds, and 
