[Plate 30.] 



CHIONODOXA LUCILLE. 



J. Hardy Perennial Bulbous Plant, belonging to the Natural Order Liliacejs, from Asia 



Mix or and Crete. 



H>penftc Character. 



CHIONODOXA LTJCILL3E.— Bulb ovoid, with brown membranous tunics. Leaves two or three to a stem, sheathing 

 it for some distance above the base, fleshy, bright green, three to six inches long at the time of flowering, 

 channelled down tbe face, cucullate at the tip. Scape attaining a length of four or six inches above the bulb, 

 slender, terete. Flowers from one to ten, arranged in a very lax deltoid raceme, with minute membranous bracts, 

 and cernuous pedicels. Perianth bright blue, or rarely entirely white, nine or twelve lines long, with an oblong 

 tube, and six spreading oblong-lanceolate segments under a quarter of an inch broad. Filaments flat, white, 

 unequal ; the larger a sixth of an inch long, the smaller an eighth of an inch, touching edge to edge, and not 

 forming a distinct corona, as in Puschkinia. Anthers linear, cleft at the tip, protruding out of the cup formed by 

 the filaments. Ovary blue, sessile, globose, with a short cylindrical style, and a capitate stigma. 



Botanical Magazine, 6433. 



ACCORDING to Sir J. D. Hooker's account in. the Botanical Magazine ,.the plant was 

 ■il first discovered about the year 1842, at an elevation of some 7,000 feet, amongst 

 the snows above Bagdagh. It has been introduced to cultivation by Mr. Maw, who 

 speaks of it thus : — " On my second day's excursion from the little Turkish village of 

 Taktalie, which I had made my head-quarters for the examination of the interesting range 

 of mountains including the Taktalie and Nymph Dagh, I ascended to the summit of the 

 latter mountain; and just as. we were returning, my Greek and Turkish attendants be- 

 came botanically excited, and beckoned me to a spot a little way off, at an altitude of 

 about 4,300 feet — a bank-side, thickly covered with Chionodoxa Lucilise, the most brilliant 

 floral display I ever beheld — a bright mass of blue and white, resembling Nemophila 

 insignis in colour, but even more intense in effect, and round about it was a complete 

 garden of bulbous plants, including a small yellow Fritillaiy, Colchicum bulbocodoides, 

 two or three species of Tulips, some yellow Gages, Croci, and great tufts of Galanthus 

 Elwesii, with leaves half a yard long. Of Chionodoxa Lucilise, as a highly-decorative 

 and perfectly hardy plant, I can speak with great confidence. The roots dug up in 

 1877 flowered but sparingly in 1878 ; but notwithstanding the late severe winter, the 

 patches out of doors have fully recovered their transplantation, and are flowering as well 

 as in their native habitat, forming the most brilliant tufts, in which the foliage is almost 



