[Plate 31.] 



THE MOUNTAIN IXIOLIRIOK 



(iXIOLIRION MONTANUM.) 



A Hardy Bulbous Plant from Syria, and also Siberia, belonging to the Natural Order 



Amaryllidace.e. 



Specific Character. 



IXIOLIRION MONTANUM.— Bulb ovate. Stem erect, bearing at the base linear-lanceolate glabrous leaves, and 

 at the summit a branched umbel of funnel-shaped violet flowers, each about one and a half to two inches across. 

 The flower segments are linear-lanceolate, three-nerved, the three outer ones with a sharp projecting point near 

 the tip, the three inner ones blunt. Stamens six. Ovary inferior, top-shaped, glabrous. 



M. T. Masters. 



AMONGST the many handsome Amaryllidaceous plants we possess, there is the small 

 group of Ixiolirions, some three or four in number, if indeed, as supposed by 

 some well skilled in bulbs, the whole are not mere forms of the one species, I. mon- 

 tanum, the subject of our present plate. They are quite hardy, and remarkably hand- 

 some, but, except by the comparatively few people who make hardy plants their especial 

 -favourites, they are little known. I. montanum is a bulbous-rooted plant of medium 

 or small size, growing to a height of some ten or twelve inches, according to the soil 

 or situation in which it is planted ; the foliage is narrow, and of a grass-like character. 

 The flowers are produced on erect spikes, sometimes branched (but when this occurs it 

 is no doubt owing to the plant being in a strong condition), blue or violet in colour, 

 anthers yellow, contrasting well with the shade of the petals, which are about an 

 inch and a quarter long by one-fourth of an inch broad, somewhat recurved ; the foot- 

 stalks of the individual flowers are long and slender, giving the whole an elegant 

 appearance. It blooms about the beginning of May, and is quite distinct from the 

 other habitants of the garden. What is probably another variety of the plant has 

 more recently been introduced — I. Pallasi, from Syria, where it is said to be found 



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