30 Bartonia ornata. 



SYNONYM. 



* Bartonia decapctala, Sims's Bot. Mag. 



The whole plant, except the petals, more or less scabrous with 

 short barbed hairs. Biennial; root long, succulent and fusiform. Stem 

 irregularly angular and much branched, two to four feet high. Leaves 

 alternate, sessile, oblong-lanceolate, interruptedly and sinuately pin- 

 natiiid, six to eight inches long ; segments three to six lines in length, 

 incurved, generally with one or two dentures on the lower side ; 

 uppermost leaves ovate-lanceolate, or dilated at the base. Calix in- 

 separably investing the germ, border five-cleft, superior, segments 

 lanceolate, acuminate, persistent, an inch long. Flowers odorous, yel- 

 lowish-white, of uncommon magnitude almost resembling some species 

 of Cactus, solitary and terminal, sessile. Petals ten, lanceolate-ovate, 

 concave and spreading, conspicuously unguiculate, acute, numerously 

 nerved, inserted upon the calix, about two inches long, the live inte- 

 rior somewhat smaller. Stamina very numerous, from two hundred 

 to two hundred and fifty more or less, a little shorter than the corolla 

 and inserted also upon the calix ; filaments scarcely attenuated, fili- 

 form ; anthers small, oblong, distinct, inserted upon the subulate sum- 

 mit of the filament, about a line in length, two-celled. Germ appear- 

 ing inferior, being inseparably invested by the lower part of the calix. 

 Style filiform, a little longer than the stamina, tubular, arising from 

 the centre of the valves, longitudinally and spirally striate, nectarifer- 



