3°8 



FLORA AND SYLVA. 



produced in pairs, are dark green, deeply chan- 

 nelled and recurved, and strangely thickened 

 towards the apex into a horny tip. 



L. Regeliana. — A garden cross between Ls. j 

 rejiexa and tricolor-aurea, bearing spreading 

 horizontal flowers of pure yellow with a green 

 spot at the tips of the outer and shorter tube-seg- 

 ments. Leaves glossy green, free from spots. 



L. rosea. — A distinct and rare plant, the 

 small flowers of which are bright red and held 

 erect. Leaves smooth, unspotted, and 6 to 9 

 inches long. May. 



L. rubida. — Another kind of marked cha- 

 racter,in that it flowers in autumn and that the 

 flowers and leaves appear at the same time, the 

 latter finishing their growth after the flowers 

 have withered. It is a plant of uncertain growth, 

 never free, and often refusing to flower. Its 

 habit is dwarf, with a slender stem thickly 

 spotted, bearing long tubular flowers of bright 

 uniform ruby-red, paler towards the tips, and 

 marked with dark purple and green at the 

 edge of the tube. There are two varieties of 

 this plant : punctata, with flowers of a pale co- 

 lour spotted with deep red, and tigrina, or 

 Ware's variety, with flowers shading from 

 bright red at the base to bright yellow in the 

 middle, and thence to green at the tips of the 

 tube. 



L. tricolor and its varieties. — Though in 

 name the best known of all the Cape Cowslips, 

 the varieties of this plant are so many and so 

 confused as to make it difficult to fix on the 

 wild form with certainty. That accepted by 

 botanists is a boldfree-growingkind,with long 

 leaves of greyish-green faintly blotched with 

 darker patches, and long tubular flowers droop- 

 ing from slightly arched stems, in which bands 

 of red and yellow merge gradually into green 

 at the mouth, where there is no colour edg- 

 ing. The plant is easily grown and flowered, 

 increasing more freely than most kinds and 

 flowering early in March. In its best forms it 

 is widely grown for greenhouse decoration. 



L. tricolor-aurea. — A distinct form of tri- 

 color, bearing yellow flowers and differing in 

 habit and in growth, being far morecapricious 

 and flowering in general several weeks later. 

 Its leaves are short and rigid, blotched with 

 dull red, which often towards the tip suffuses 

 the whole surface. Flower-stem short and 

 stout, sparingly spotted in its lower part and 



reddish higher up, brightening to a fine orange- 

 red towards the tip. A few spreading flowers 

 are crowded upon the top of the stem, their 

 colour a bright yellow shading to green at the 

 ends of the segments. Syn. lute a. 



L. tricolor-aurea gigantea. — A garden seed- 

 ling of more robust growth and bolder habit, 

 bearing upon stems of a foot high large flowers 

 of rich orange-yellow. 



L. tricolor-luteola. — Differs but little from 

 its parent, save in more slender growth and 

 the pure yellow of its mature flowers, which 

 show but traces of red shading, while the 

 green colour at the mouth of the tube is also 

 less marked. The leaves are often heavily 

 blotched with brown, giving rise to a second 

 name of maculata. 



L. tricolor Nelsoni. — A fine garden seedling 

 and one of the best kinds for all purposes. It 

 was raised by the late Rev. John Nelson in 

 1 880, and is of free robust growth, with leaves 

 12 inches long and 2 inches wide, thickly 

 blotched with darker patches. It bears spikes 

 a foot high of drooping flowers, twenty to 

 twenty-five in number and an inch or more 

 long, in colour a bright golden-yellow en- 

 hanced by the bright red of the sterile buds 

 and the stem bearing them. This finest of gar- 

 den forms is regular in flower, blooming early, 

 and a little in advance of tricolor. 



L. tricolor-quadricolor . — The plant bearing 

 this unhappy name resembles its parent closely 

 in point of habit and appearance, but a little 

 dwarfer and more rigid, and rather less vigor- 

 ous. Its long leaves are wide and spotted, and 

 the flowers well displayed upon the stem. Its 

 colour differs in the breadth of the greenish 



band at the mouth of the tube, while the ends 



... 



of the segments are tipped with crimson-purple 

 or claret. There are two or three minor forms 

 of this variety, the best of which is superba, a 

 plant of more slender growth and brighter 

 colour. Its leaves are long and narrow, of a 

 pale greyish-green thickly blotched. The long 

 slender stem is unspotted, and bears its flowers 

 drooping closely ; these are longer and nar- 

 rower than quadricolor, richer in colour, with 

 the deep purple at the mouth of the tube 

 strongly marked. This fine variety blooms 

 early, being one of the first to flower. In a se- 

 cond form, prcecox, this feature is marked, the 

 I plant being frequently in beauty by Christmas. 



