BOCCONIA 



THE BULB BOOK 



BOMAEEA 



tte seventeenth, century). Nat. Ord. 

 Irideae. — This genus contains about 

 a dozen species, all natives of South 

 Africa, and of little garden value. 

 They have a short rhizome, which 

 becomes thickened into a corm in 

 B. filiformis. The flowers are borne 

 in clusters, and are usually yellow in 

 colour. The species have been con- 

 fused a good deal with members of 

 such genera as Ixia, Maeioa, MoBiEA, 

 and SiSTEnsrcHiDM, to all of which 

 they are closely related, and require 

 the same cultural treatments. The 

 plants grow from 1 to 3 ft. high, and 

 have stiff, roundish, or narrow sword- 

 shaped leaves. B. anceps, B. aphylla, 

 B. Burchelli, B.filiformis,B. gladiata, 

 B. macrospatha, B. robusta, and B. 

 spathacea are the species known. 

 B. aurantiaca is [now known as 



HOMEEIA. 



BOCCONIA (after Paolo Bocconi, 

 a Sicilian botanist). Nat. Ord. 

 Papaveraceae. — ^A genus containing 

 three species of bold and ornamental 

 plants with thickish, creeping root- 

 stocks, large, deeply lobed leaves, and 

 erect panicles of numerous small 

 flowers. 



They are all easily grown in any 

 good garden soil, and flourish in shade 

 or sunshine, but make much finer 

 plants in the latter. They seed freely, 

 and each year hundreds of young 

 self-sown plants may be found 

 around the old ones. They are also 

 easily increased by division of the 

 thickish yellow rhizomes. Indeed, 

 once they are in a garden, the chief 

 difficulty will consist in preventing 

 them from crowding out other plants 

 of less vigorous growth. 



B. cordata {B. japonica ; Madeaya 

 yedoensis). — A stately Chinese per- 

 ennial, 6 to 10 ft. or more high, with 

 large, deeply lobed, fig-like leaves, 

 soft green above, whitish beneath. 



Flowers small, creamy buff, produced 

 in large feathery or plume-like 

 panicles during the summer months. 

 {Bot. Mag. t. 1905.) 



108 



Fig. 71. — Socconia cordaia, root-stock 

 and buds. (J.) 



B. ft-utescens. — ^A Mexican species 

 3 to 6 ft. high, with large sea-green 

 lobed leaves and feathery panicles of 

 greenish flowers. This is not quite 

 hardy, and therefore not often seen. 



B. microcarpa. — This species from 

 N. China is very similar in appearance 

 to B. cordata, but does not grow so 

 tall. Its leaves are also somewhat 

 smaller and more deeply lobed and 

 ornamental, and the flowers are of a 

 more bronzy brown tint. 



BOMABSA (after Valmont de 

 Bomare). Nat. Ord. Amaryllidese. — 

 This genus contains about eighty 

 species of plants with slender roots, 

 often thickened towards the tip into 

 large tubers ; more or less climbing or 

 creeping stems ; leaves sometimes 

 linear, but usually oblong, pointed. 



