530 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Hypoxis (? sp.). — A minute plant, with about five yellow flowers 

 flowering in February. 



This grows here and there in Petropolis, on the grassy sides of the 

 roads. It does not seem very far removed from H. erecta, a North 

 American representative of this genus. 



Iride^e. 



Marica Helena (sp. now). — This beautiful plant is certainly not 

 identical with Marica ccerulea (Cypella carulea, Seubert ex. Hook. f. in 

 " Bot. Mag." t. 5612), although it might, perhaps, be treated as a variety 

 of it. Yet. I think the differences are more than varietal ; the plant is also 

 of much hardier constitution, and will stand some frost without injury. 



The seeds which I brought back quickly grew into flowering plants, 

 which have in turn produced fertile seeds at Isleworth, and my plants 

 flower regularly in spring or early summer. 



At Petropolis the seeds are ripe in March, which corresponds with our 

 September, so that the seedlings have inverted their seasons to suit ours 

 with exactitude, for with me seed ripens in September. In two years 

 from the time of sowing (Ap. '99) the plants bloomed, and they differed 

 from the M. ccerulea of Seubert's figure in their much longer, and some- 

 what narrower, indigo-blue " falls." In the case of M. Helena the re- 

 flexed apices alone measure 2^ inches long, and the span of each flower 

 is from 4^ inches to nearly 5 inches. 



In the bud state the flowers are almost black, and at no time show 

 any trace of pink as in Seubert's figure. The "standards" are much 

 more distinctly vittate, and are of a deep velvet-blue in two marginal 

 stripes, with a white keel of equal width between them. 



The flower scape is like a leaf, very thin and long, deflectant, and semi- 

 prostrate, but the individual flowers are erect and expand successively, 

 and singly, at intervals of a day or two. They are inodorous and each 

 one is a thing of beauty for one day only, fcr by next morning it is twisted 

 up and has almost disappeared. 



The foliage does not differ materially from M. ccerulea, and is semi- 

 glaucaus. 



M. Helena will grow outside during the summer and will carry seed, 

 but should be housed on the approach of frost, although I have exposed it 

 to some degrees of frost without serious injury. Very possibly the plant 

 might even pass the winter outside with protection, but I should doubt its 

 ability to flower well in our climate. 



However, it succeeds well in a greenhouse temperature, if the air is 

 sufficiently moist. The plants are not deciduous, and should never become 

 desiccated. 



Marica (sp. Glaziou, 18556). 



Si&yrinchitm (?) sp. — Near the Facienda Quitandina, on the road- 

 side in partly shaded places, flowering in March. 

 Root-stock. — Bulbous, minute. 



Leaves. — Distichous, alternate, short, the edges inflected, about 11 . 

 slicithing the stem in the lowest inch thereof ; about 3 inches long by 

 J inch wide. 



