uo Ixia acuta. 



acute, and appearing very much so by the convolution of their margins 

 towards the apex; they are flax-flower-blue, darker in the centre and 

 towards the base, where this colour is abruptly terminated by a white, 

 dentated splotch. Filaments about one-eighth of an inch long, white, 

 cohering at the base. Anthers erect, gamboge-yellow, more than a 

 quarter of an inch in length, at first erect, afterwards, when the pollen 

 is thrown out, becoming involuted. Pistils six, emerging by pairs from 

 between each two anthers — they are white below, tipped with blue 

 stigmas, and tinged with the same colour half their length. Grows in 

 the Arkansa Territory, whence roots were brought by Mr. Nuttall. 

 The specimen from which the drawing was made, flowered this sum- 

 mer at the Botanic Garden of Kingsess. The second flower bloomed on 

 the twelfth of May, and by the politeness of Col. Carr, the proprietor, 

 an opportunity was afforded me of figuring it during the very short time 

 it continued in bloom. So very evanescent is the carulean hue of 

 this flower, that it faded perceptibly in thirty minutes, and so transitory 

 was its bloom that in the lapse of little more than an hour, its petals 

 became convoluted, and the flower was folded up. The anthers be- 

 came involuted immediately after the discharge of pollen, which soon 

 occurred when the flower expanded. 



The venerable William Bartram, who is still living at Kingsess Gar- 

 dens, mentions in his travels into Florida that he met with whole 

 fields of the Ixia Ccelestina. The visits of late botanists not having 

 thrown his plant in their way, led some to doubt whether Mi-. Bar- 



