April. 
- fix’d and certain ; 
OF {GA BRB EN UNG: 
Leaves and Stalk, as well as the Flower, fingular 
and beautiful. 
The Root is long and white: 
lower Part, and {maller upwards. 
thick in the 
From this rife, early in Spring, two Leaves, 
and with them the Flower-ftalk and the Bud: 
this is tender, and at its firft Rife above the Sur- 
face, would be deftroyed by the Froft and fharp 
Winds of the Seafon ; but Nature has provided a 
Defence : it rifes in the Midft of the two Leaves, 
and they clofe round about it; fo that what ap- 
pears is anoblong Mafs, or great Bud, burfting 
from the Root. After fome Time thefe Leaves 
open at the Tops and Edges, and fhew their 
Form: 
by Degrees thus inur’d to the Air; and they 
bear it without Hurt. 3 
The Leaves fall oppofite on the Ground, and 
are oblong, moderately broad, pointed at the End, 
and divided at the Edges; without Footttalks, 
and of a flefhy Subftance. Their narrow Bafe, 
where it rifes from the Ground, is whitith ftain’d 
with Crimfon, and from this Part it is hollow’d. 
The Rib on the under Part is Crimfon, and 
there run feveral oblique Fibres from it, ting’d 
with the fame Colour. 
_ The upper Side of the Leaf is very delicately | 
-variegated with a dufky brown upon a fine bright 
green, which is the Ground Colour. 
The Rib on this Side is green; and the brown, 
which makes the Variegations, is difpos’d in an 
irregular Manner, like the Veins and Clouds in 
fome of the fine Marbles. 
This is the natural Condition of the Leaf; but 
in good Culture it varies greatly ; not only in 
thefe Accidents, but in what might appear more 
Number and Form. 
Thefe Variegations will be femetiiacs purple . 
inftead of brown, and fometimes white. In the 
Place of two there will occafionally rife three, or 
but one Leaf: in the firft Cafe they are ufually 
narrower; and in the other broader and fhorter 
than in the common State of the Piant ; but this is 
Accident; no Mark of a Diftinction of Spe- 
cies. 
The Flower-ftalk has no Leaves, it rifes fingle, 
and is four or five Inches high, round, tender, 
and of a delicate Red. 
“AL ene Top is plac’d one Flower, very large, | 
{pecious, too heavy to be fupported upright on fo 
weak a Stem, fo that it droops; and does not, 
till fully ripen’d, turn up again. 
- This Flower is very large for the Plant; and 
in Colour, F orm, and Variety of Afpedt, exceeds 
moft others. 
Ir is compos’d of fix Petals, and is in Colour 
white. At firft the Flower is clos’d together, and 
hangs perfectly drooping ; from this State by De- 
grees the Petals raife ene ives! and become ex- 
panded in Porin of a Star; but ftill there remains 
the Flower-Bud and its tender Stalk are | 
a Part at the Bafe, clos’d to defend the Rudiment 
of the Fruit. The Petals expand from a certain 
Part, at about a fourth of their Length from the 
Stalk, and never open entirely. 
The Flower, in this State, has its higheft ° 
Beauty; the Crimfon occupies all the © re- 
mote Part of the Petals, but from the Centre 
there runs into each a radiated Spot of White, 
which connecting itfelf, where the Petals touch, 
forms in the Whole the Reprefentation of a broad 
Star ; fuch as Heralds have devis’d to dignify the 
principal Orders of Knighthood; or fuch as Na- 
ture forms with her pure Selenite, upon the yel- 
low Coat of the Septaria *; 
Within this lucid Star there fosritts another of a 
dufky golden Hue; its Bafe perfect yellow ; but 
the ratiated Part, which anfwers in every Point 
to the Rays of the white one, dufted = a nee 
tawney brown. 
Thus appears the F lower i in its full Globy' ; af- 
terwards the Petals turn themfelves back, and ex- 
hibit a new. Form. This we have reprefented in 
the Figure, becaufe thus the internal Parts are 
moft expos’d to the Eye of the young Botanift. 
| We now come to examine the Flower in due Me- 
thod, to learn the Claffical acid ste tre Cha- 
racters of the Plant. > ~ | 
It rifes naked iti the Stalk, adil by no 
Cup. The fix Petals are plac’d three outward 
and three inward, alternately; and they have a 
rounded {welling Bafe, whence they grow broader 
to the Middle, and. thence narrower again to a 
| Point. 
_ Six Filaments and a fingle Style are moft ex- 
tremely confpicuous : ’tis for that Reafon, as alfo 
in the former Inftance, we have taken fo large a 
Scope of Explanation; for they will ferve the 
Student for a thoufand other Leffons. 
The Filaments are Snow-white, large at the 
Bafe, and fmaller to the Top: their Buttons are 
long, furrow’d, and of a Violet Purple, dufted 
with white. 
The Style is Snow-white, thick, longer than 
the Filaments, and at the Summit divided into 
three Parts, which are {plit at the End. 
The Plant is therefore one of the Hexandria of 
Linnzvus, and of its firft Section, or, 
calls it, Order, the Monogynia. 
as he 
The Seed-veffel is roundifh, but fmalleft to- 
ward the Bafe, and it contains, in three Cells, 
many Seeds of an oval Form, but pointed. 
Here the Student might ftop his Enquiries, 
for we have feen the Structure and the Characters 
of the Flower: but let him who follows the Steps 
of Nature in our Courfe, never leave any Part 
-unfearch’d : there may be Particularities yet un- 
| » | obferv’d ; for the Filaments and Style are fo con- 
when in greateft Perfection, of the moft delicate 
Crimfon painting can exprefs. In other Plants the 
Red varies thro’ all Degrees, and it is fometimes | 
fpicuous, the Flower needs not be torn open to 
defcry them. Let that be done now. 
He. will thus find what no Linn avs yet has 
told him ; that of the fix Filaments, three grow 
to the Petals, and three to the Receptacle ; and 
he wilh fee plainly the Neétaria that Author fo 
well diftinguifh’d. This Infertion of the Fila- 
* Hill’s Hift, of Foffils. 
IS? 3. 
ments 
58 
369 
April. 
