PLATE X. 



ARISTEA CYANEA. 



Blue-flowered Ariftea. 



CLASS III. ORDER I. 



TRIANDRIA MONOGYNIA. Three Chives. One Pointal. 



GENERIC CHARACTER. 



Calyx. Spathae bivalves, laceras, perfiftentes. 



Corolla, hexapetala, oblonga, aequalia, obcor- 



data, perfiftentia, patens. 

 Stamina. Filamenta tria, erefta, fubulata. 



Antherae fub-fimplices, magnse. 

 Pistillum. Germen inferum. Stylus filifor- 



mis, ere£tus. Stigma trifidum, concavum, 



reflexum. 

 Pericaepium. Capfula oblonga, triquetra, tri- 



locularis, loculis compreflis, trivalvis. 

 Semina plura, comprefia, fcabrida, fub-femi- 



circularia. 



Empalement. Sheath two valves, ragged, and 



remaining. 

 Blossom, of fix petals, oblong, equal, inverfely 



heart-fhaped, remaining, fpreading. 

 Chives. Three threads, upright, awl-fhaped. 



Tips almoft fimple, and large. 

 Pointal. Seed-bud beneath. Shaft thread- 



fliaped and erect. Summit cut into 



three, concave and reflected. 

 Seed-vessel. Capfule oblong, three -fided, 



three cells, cells comprefTed, three valves. 

 Seeds many, flat, rough, nearly femicircular. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTER. 



Ariftea, foliis enfiformibus, radicalibus; floribus 



capitatis, cyaneis. 



Ariftea with fword-fhaped leaves growing from 

 the root; the flowers grow in heads, and 

 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.) 



3. A perfect Seed, (magnified.) 



The Ariftea is a native of the Cape of Good Hope, and has been defcribed under various fynonyrns; 

 by Plukenett as a Gramen, by Petiver as Bermudiana Capenfis, and by Van Royen, Burmann, and 

 Linnaeus, as an Ixia. But although differing from Linnaeus is againft the fixed intention of this 

 undertaking, where there is a poflibility of avoiding it; yet in this inflance of alteration he mull 

 have acquiefced, having undoubtedly never feen the plant himfelf, The bloflbm, feed-veffel, feeds, 

 habit, root, and growth, of the plant, fo totally differ from the character 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 

 introduced, to that collection, by Mr. F. Maflbn in 1//4; though no fpecific description is given of 

 it ; from which we may conjecture, it never flowered there. The figure here given, was taken from 

 a plant which flowered at Meffrs. Lee and Kennedy's, in 1797- The Ariftea being rather a delicate 

 plant, requires an airy, warm fituation in the greenhoufe, flowering readily about the month of July, 

 or Auguft ; requiring to be kept in a fmall pot, the foil a light loam. It propagates by feeds, and 

 flips. 



