PLATE VIII. 



GLADIOLUS ALATUS. 



Wing-flowered Gladiolus. 



CLASS III. ORDER I. 

 TRIANDRIA MONOGYNIA. Three Chives. One Pointal. 



GENERIC 

 Calyx. Spathae bivalves. 

 Corolla, fexpartita, riogens. Petala oblonga, 

 omnia unguibus in tubum conata. 



Stamina. Filamenta tria, fubulata, divifuris 

 alternis petalorum inlerta. Antherae ob- 

 longa;. 



Pistillum. Germen inferam. Stylus (implex, 

 longitudine ftaminium. Stigma tritidum, 

 concavum. 



Pericarpium. Capfula oblonga, obtufa, tri- 

 locularis, trivalvis. 



Semina plura, fubrotunda. 



HARACTER. 



Empalement. Sheath two valves. 



Blossom, of fix divifions, and gaping. Petals 



oblong, having their claws formed into a 



tube. 

 Chives. Three awl-fhaped threads, fixed into 



the alternate divifions of the petals. Tips 



oblong. 

 Pointal. Seed-bud beneath. Shaft (imple, the 



length of the chives. Summit cut into 



three, and concave. 

 Seed-vessel. Caplule oblong, blunt ended, 



three cells, three valves. 

 Seeds many, nearly round. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTER. 

 Gladiolus, foliis enfifonnibus, coftatis; petalis Gladiolus, with fword-fhape, ribbed leaves; the 



fide petals of the blolTom the broadeft. 



lateralibus latillimis. 



REFERENCE TO THE PLATE. 



1. The two Sheaths of the Empalement, with the Chives, detached from the Petals, as they 



ftand in the Bloffbm, and apparently attached to each other; with the natural pofition 

 of the Pointal. 



2. The Chives, Pointal, and Seed-bud; one of the divifions of the Summit magnified. 



This fpecies of Gladiolus, although fo fearce with us, is certainly one of the moft common found 

 near Cape Town; and, notwithstanding its extreme beauty, has been overlooked by moft collectors; 

 who, from its great frequency, have generally confidered it as forming, undoubtedly, part of every 

 colle&ion of exotics. It is of an extreme delicate nature, and overmuch wet eafily deffroys it; dif- 

 fering from molt Cape bulbs, in requiring a light loamy earth, and the afliftance of a dry ftove, to 

 make it flower well; which it will do by fuch aid, about May, or June; feldom producing feeds, and 

 propagating but flowly by the root. From the fugitive character of this plant, it is difficult to afccrtain 

 the firfi culti\ator; for although it does not appear amonglt the Gladiolus in the Hortus Kewenfis, it 

 raiift undoubtedly have come into that immenle collection at different periods, but never flowered; 

 which is the reafon we do not find it there defcribed, which has been done by Linnaeus, in his Species 

 Plantarum, under the name it here bears; as well as by Plukenet, in his Phyto graphia, and others 

 under various fynonims. This figure was taken from a plant that flowered at Meffrs. Lee and Ken- 

 nedy's in 1 ; "9(5. 



