Galanthus.] amaeyllidace.e. 495 



leaves (or bracts ?), that quite conceal them iu the bud. Tuhe of the perianth 

 short, filled with a melliferous fluid, the 3 exterior petals much the largest, greatly 

 longer than the stigmas, spreading and reflexed, the limb ovate, violet-blue with 

 copious branching purple veins, nearly white towards the broad and pale dingy 

 yellow claws, that are streaked and dotted with purplish brown, most thickly 

 towards their margins; dinner petals erecto-patent, much shorter and smaller 

 than the outer, with narrow involute claws, the limb ovato-oblong, entire, not 

 reflexed, paler and far less distinctly veined than in the others. Stamens about 

 the length of the stigmas; anthers purplish or whitish; pollen pale yellow. 

 Stigmas pale fuscous, incumbent on the anthers, but a little distant from the 

 petals, and shorter than the three inner petals, reflexed, obtuse and bifid but not 

 laciniated at their summits, with/an acute ridge or keel, the broad membranous 

 border of each stigma terminating beneath its bilobale extremity in 2 free (not 

 adnate) toothed or notched divisions. Germen oblong, 3-lobed, each lobe and the 

 intermediate angles with a central furrow. Capsule about 2 inches in length, 

 oblong, obscurely triangular, not beaked, yellowish when ripe and widely dehis- 

 cing, with three twisted leathery valves, each bearing one row or more of roundish, 

 berry-like, bright orange or scarlet and highly polished seeds on either side of the 

 broad central dissepiment close to its inner edge. Seed globose, covered with a 

 spongy, succulent and sli<!;htlj acrid pulp, the albumen very large and horny. 



A handsome plant, and a conspicuous ornament of our woods and hedgerows 

 in autumn and winter, from the contrast of its dark evergreen leaves with the 

 brilliant orange or scarlet seeds, that remain very long attached to the widely 

 spreading valves of the capsule ; nor are its delicately pencilled flowers eclipsed 

 in beauty by many blossoms of a gayer season. A variety with variegated leaves 

 is grown in gardens at Ryde, &c. The smell of the bruised leaves is by some 

 persons thought to resemble that of roast beef, by others it is compared to rancid 

 bacon, dissimilar ones certainly, and indicative of the extreme ambiguity of 

 impressions received through the weakest and most deceptive of the senses. To 

 myself the odour is by no means unpleasant, recalling that of milk heated till a 

 pellicle has formed on its surface. 



The var. /3. is a most remarkable one, of which T met with a few specimens in a 

 wood near Yarmouth in July, 1847. In these the flowers were of an uniform lemon- 

 yellow verging upon white in the segments of the perianth, without the least of 

 the usual purple colouring or trace of the dark pencilling, except a few faint veins, 

 of a somewhat deeper colour than the ground. The still unopened buds were 

 equally pale, but the plant possessed the smell and other characters of the species 

 unaltered. This singular variety much resembled the yellow-flowered one of 

 I. spuria (S) halophila of Curtis, Bot. Mag. vol. 48, t. 1131. 



The present is rather a maritime and western species, becoming manifestly 

 scarcer on the mainland, at the distance even of a few miles from the coast, and 

 is generally rare in all the midland and eastern counties of England. 



Order LXXIV. AMAEYLLIDACE^, R. Br. 



"Limb oi the perianth coloured, 6-partite or 6-cleft. Stamens 

 6, inserted at the bottom of the segments, sometimes united by a 

 membrane, ^wf/jers opening inwards. 0^'ar^/ inferior, 3 -celled; 

 the cells many-seeded, or in those whose fruit is fleshy 1 — 2 

 seeded. Style 1. Stigma 3-lobed. Fruit capsular ; either dry 

 with 3 valves bearing the dissepiments in the middle, 3 cells and 

 many seeds ; or fleshy 1 — 3 seeds . Integument of the seed not 

 crustaceous. Embryo straight, in the axis of a fleshy albumen. 



