LIV, 
. ORNITHOGLOSSUM GLAUCUM. 
Glaucous Ornithoglossum. 
ORDO NATURALIS. 
Junci. Juss. Gen. p. 43. 
Sect. IV. Pericarpium 3-loculare vel 3 basi coalita. - Flores paniculati vel spicati. 
lorum aiden. Styli 3, prcis, divaricati. Semina margine septoram duplici serie 88 
foliatur ad apicem enatéa. Céutis turioniformis. Folia succulenta, equitantia inferioribus 
approximatis. Flores spicati, pedicellis longis apice clavatis. ractew solitarie, foliacee. 
Sots ab affinibus ejusdem regionis, insertione amentorum, dignoscendum. Nomen a voci- 
O. foliis glaucis: pedicellis longis. 
Melanthium viride. Thunb. Prodr. p. 67. auctoritate ejus speciminis. Melanthium viride. 
Linn, Suppl. p . 
Sponte nascentem in Promontorio Cup, legit J. Niven. 
Floret apud nos Octobri, Novembri. 
” Under a specimen of this plant preserved in’ the Banksian Herbarium, some botanist has 
written “‘ forte alius generis.” Of this there c be no es as well as that the other plants 
from the same country must be removed from nthium, which is an American genus 2p- 
proaching nearer to Ve ratrum: both in them, and Wurmbea he root resembles that of Colcht- 
cum, and the young shoot — from the side near the bottom, an additional reason “s 
separating our plant. ‘That it is the Melanthium Viride of Thunberg, I have ascertained from 
his own specimen, but the wf slant figured under that name in the Botanical Repository t. 233, 
- though evidently a congener, coat be the same with ours, unless it is very faulty indeed 
both in the colour and dissection 
It was sent to a Hibbert, Esq. from the Cape of Good pi by his a e ap fe . 
also now in flower at Messrs. Lee and Kennedy’s nursery. Root tuberous, mo 
crooked, satusally pastsotuced at the top of the preceding one, sending ou fibres in 2 aie 
from the bottom. Stem running horizontally when the root is near the surface of the groun 
before it pie ak round and smooth. Leaves glaucous, crowded at the b 
if they were radical, somewhat bifarious, lance-wedge-shaped, very entire, obtuse, 
rwards elevated in a manifest spike a from 5 
to 20 flowers. Bractes only differing from the leaves in size, the lowest very large, the upper 
ones in specimens that have many flowers scarcely an inch long. Pedicles glaucous, long, ears 
= bee at the top. Petals dark purple with the dise glaucous and their margins tow 
. ed, w very : near the base 
hollowed out hito. a dull yellow oval nectarium above which they are 
dark 4 al ays , and as soon as the fruit begins to swell, their sides are more curved over 
the nectar 3 persisting. Filaments yellowish green with very —" dark ‘purple spots 
ronan the to top, inserted in the receptacle quite distinct from the petals, refl iexed, ome 
nx deciduous. Anthers dull yellow with a purple tinge, somewhat sagittate, inse 
the middle. Pollen deep yellow. er ium while young re. green, oval, 3-angular, 
shining. Styles 3, —— _ green with very minute dark p rple Bagot towards the top, 
diverging from the very bo rnagaainion 3 atten Stigua: late — 
Seeds large, and as far as I ae oa oe from some that are many years old fleshy or succulen 
