PLATE DCXV. 



GLOBBA PURPUREA. 



Purple Ghhha. 



CLASS I. ORDER L 



MONANDRIA MO NOG YN I A. One Stamen. One Style. 



GENERIC CHARACTER. 



Anthera duplex. Filamentum lineare, in- 

 curvaluni, longissimum, apppiidiculatiim. 

 Stylus laxus filiformis in medio antliC'rae 

 receptus. Stigma iucrassatum. NectafKim 

 utiiiKjue bifidum. Roscoe in the Iransac- 

 tions of ihd Linnean Societi/, vol. 8. p. 355. 



Anthers double. Filament lineat, ii curved, 

 very long and appendaged. Style (or shaft) 

 long tliread-shaped, going up between the 

 anthers. Stigma (or summit) swelling. 

 Nectary cleft at both ends. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTER. 



Globba scapo ^pliyllo paniculate; bracteis ca- 

 lyce multo longioribus subovatis, corolla 

 trilobi, filamento medio biappendiculato, 

 nectario cordato-oblongo. 



Globba with a leafless panicled stem, the bracts 

 many times longer than the cup and nearly 

 ovate, the blossom of three lobes, the fila- 

 ment with two appendages in liie middle, 

 and the nectary between a heart-shape and 

 an oblong. 



REFERENCE TO THE PLATE. 



A leaf. 



A flower, 



A front view of the same divested of the calyx. 



Empalement, seed-bud, and pointal. 



No genus of plants has more puzzled botanists than the Globba of Linnaeus, no plant having yet beea 

 discovered that agrees with his generic character; but as the possessor of his herbarium has decided that 

 the Globba marantina, the only species of th's genus Linnaeus professes to have seen, was the same 

 plant with (hat called by Dr. Roxburgh, and also by Mr. l^onn in his Catalogue of the Cambridge Bo- 

 tanic Garden, Colebrookia bulbifera ; (see Smith's Exotic Botany, page 85, where he has corrected the 

 generic character;) this plant, also sent from India by Dr. Roxburgh to Sir Abraham Hume, bart. in 

 3 809, now also clianges its name to Globba. The inflorescence, which is directly from the root, whilst 

 in all the species described by D'r. Smith it is placed above the leaves on a common stem, together with 

 the three- lobed corolla, might doubtless be quite sulricient characters to distinguish it as a separate genus; 

 but another having already been published in honour of Mr. Colebrook, we prefer leaving it with the 

 congeners amongst which it was origii>aHy placed by its discoverer Dr. Roxburgh. 



I'he delicacy and elegance of the whole plant, the rich tint of the i\ova\ leaves, and the curious con- 

 struction of the blossoms, (where the long projecting filament drawn back by the style which is held by 

 its summit protruded beyond the anthers, at one period of the inflorescence nearly resembles a half- 

 bent bow,) have been admired by all who have seen it. The leaves only appear as the flowers decay. 



The plant blossomed in the middle of last May, for the first time in this country, in the collection of 

 Sir Abraham Hume, bart. where our drawing was taken. From a very useful manuscript catalogue of 

 Indian plants by Dr. Roxburgh in the collection of A. B. Lambert, esq. we learn that it is a native of 

 India, and has been found growing wild about Chittagong. 



The ripe fruit we have not seen ; but the germ is nearly oval, with three blunt angles and of one cell 

 with many seeds affixed to three lateral receptacles. The plant is perennial; aud may be propagated by 

 the roots like other scitamineous plants. 



