64 
ALSTR(EMERIA pulchella. 
Red speckled-flowered Alstrcemeria. 
HEXANDRIA MONOGYNIA._Nat. Ord. AMARYLLIDE^, Br.,^unth. 
NARCISSI, Div. III. Genera I^arcissa non omnino affinia.—Juss. 
Gen. CHAn.-^Perianthium corollaceum subcampanulaceum, sexpartitura, ir- 
regulare ; laciniis duabus interioribus basi tubuloso-Gonniventibus. Sta- 
mina sex, laciniis inserta, demum declinata. Stigma trifiduni. C^psula 
trilocularis, loculis polyspermis. Caulis erectus, scandens aut voluUlis,fo- 
liatis. Flores umbellatu — KuniJi. 
Alstrcemeria pidchella; caule ereeto gracili, foliis obovato-spathulatis 
lanceolatisque ciliatis, umbella multiflora, pedunculis bifloris, peri- 
anthii laciniis quatuor exterioribus obovato-spathulatis aequalibus 
serratis, duabus interioribus longioribus llneari.spathulatis integerri- 
mis. 
Alstrcemeria pulchella, Bot. Mag. t. 2353. (vix Linn.) 
Stem erect, scarcely climbing, slender, weak, between two and three feet 
high, simple, cylindrical, glabrous, subglaucous. Leaves scattered, dis- 
tant, those of the barren stems and the lower ones on the fertile stems 
broadly obovate, spathulate, submembranaceous, the lower petiolifor^n 
part tortuose, striated, subglaucous, the margin ciliated; the superior 
ones on the upper part of the fertile stem are lanceolate, more or less 
convolute and twisted. 
Umbel of about six rays, each of them 2-flowered. Flowers large, showy, 
and very beautiful. Pedicels about an inch long, and, as well as the pe- 
duncles, glabrous, somewhat glaucous, each subtended by a large con- 
torted leaf-like bractea, which, taken collectively at the base of the um- 
bel, form an involucre. The four exterior segments or leaflets of the 
perianth nearly equal, obovato-spathulate, erect at the base, spreading at 
the extremity, and there serrated at the margin, the point having a cal- 
lous appendage; their color a brilliant orange-scarlet; the two inner 
segments differ remarkably from the exterior ones, being nearly half as 
long again, erect, linear-spathulate, bright yellow-scarlet at the extre- 
mity, and entire, streaked throughout their whole length with dashes of 
deep scarlet. Stamens 6, inserted upon the receptacle. Filaments at first 
nearly straight, pale purplish, at length declined, their extremities in- 
curved. Anthers oblong, 2-celled, reddish-purple. Pollen yellowish. 
A 
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