CurcuUf/o.^ CXXXI. AMARYLLIDE^. 160T 



more or less free at the base. Ovary 3-oelled, with numerous ovules in two rows 

 in each cell. Style connate with the perianth-tube, shortly free above it with 8 

 erect or connate stigmatic lobes papillose outside. Fruit succulent, sessile within' 

 a sheathing bract. Seeds few, the testa striate, the funicle usually dilated. — 

 Herbs with a thick rhizome and long flat or plicate-nerved radical leaves. Scapes 

 very short or rarely longer than the spike. Flowers in short spikes or heads,, 

 each one subtended by a broad sheathing bract longer than the ovary and fruit. 



The genus extends over tropical and Southern Africa and Asia, with one American species. 

 Both the Australian species have a wide range over tropical Asia. 



Leaves broad. Flowers in a dense nodding bead on a scape of several inches. 



Perianth tube scarcely any . . • 1. C recurvala. 



Leaves narrow. Flowers in an almost sessile spike. Perianth-tube filiform . 2. C. ensifolia. 



1. C. recurvata (recurved). Ait. Hurt. Ken-, ed. 2, ii. 253; Bnith. Fl. Austr.. 

 vi. 448. Ehizome thick, with densely-clustered fibrous roots. Leaves radical,, 

 glabrous or nearly so, the petioles Gin. to near 1ft. long with a broad sheathing 

 base, the lamina oblong-lanceolate, 1 to 3ft. long, strongly ribbed and plicate. 

 Scapes densely woolly, from scarcely above ground to G to Sin. high, recurvedi 

 under the inflorescence. Spike or head of flowers nodding, very dense, ovoid or 

 nearly globular, 1 to 2in. diameter, with broadly lanceolate imbricate striate 

 more or less woolly-hairy bracts, the outer ones usually empty and sometimes 

 above lin. long, the upper ones subtending the flowers shorter. Perianth very 

 woolly-villous on a short thick pedicel ; segments of the limb ovate, spreading,. 

 3 to 4 lines long, glabrous inside, separated almost to the ovary or united at the 

 base in an exceedingly short ring. Filaments very short, the anthers oblong and. 

 erect, eonnivent into a cone round the style, which is slender slightly dilated and 

 minutely 3-lobed at the stigmatic end. Capsule nearly globular, more or less 

 succulent, softly hairy, about 3 lines diameter. Seeds globular, with a black 

 rugose crustaceous testa. — Bot. Eeg. t. 770. 



Hab. : Eockingham Bay, Dallaclnj ; not uncommon in damp tropical scrubs. 

 The species extends over the eastern provinces of India and the Archipelago. 



2. C. ensifolia (leaves sword-shaped), B. Br. Prod. 290; Benth. Fl. Austr.. 

 vi. 448. " Jool-lun," Butcher's Hill ; " U-o-ba," Morehead River ; " Un-dor-a,'" 

 Musgrave River; "Kom-mol," Cooktown ; Yuara, Palmer River; Both. Stem 

 short, produced into a descending rhizome with fibrous roots and more or less- 

 covered with the scarious sheathing bases of old leaves. Leaves usually G to 9in.- 

 long and J to ^in. broad in the middle, but sometimes 1 to l^ft. long and almost 

 fin. broad, tapering at both ends, with prominent nerves and more or less hairy 

 especially towards the base. Spikes short and erect at the base of the leaves,, 

 the scarious sheathing bracts subulate-acuminate, often lin. long. Ovary almost 

 sessile, elongated, enclosed in the bract. Perianth-tube filiform, hairy, i to fin. 

 long above the ovary ; segments of the limb usually 8 to 4 lines long, with 

 lanceolate-pointed segments more or less hairy outsic'e. Filaments short ; 

 anthers linear, the parallel cells shortly free at the base. Style column very 

 short below the stigmas, which are as long as the anthers and connate or shortly 

 free at the top. Capsule oblong, enclosed in the sheathing bract. Seeds several, 

 the black testa elegantly striate but not tubercular. — ,S. stans, Labill. Sert. Austr. 

 Caled. 18, t. 24 ; C. orchioides, Miq. Fl. Ind. Bat. iii. 585 and others, but not of 

 Eoxb. 



Hab.; Prince of Wales and other islands off Cape York, E. Brmcn; Wide Bay, Leicliliardt;^ 

 Eockingham Bay, Dallachy ; Fitzroy Island, C. ^Valter; Broadsound, iSorniiaii ; Keppel Bay,. 

 Thozet; Moreton Bay, G. Stuart; Bundabeig, J. Keijs. 



Boot, after beincr roasted, eaten.— JSof/i, I.e. 



