from the same joint, and flowering in succession, each 
producing an umbel of twenty-four flowers. Involucre 
of numerous lanceolate bluntish bractes, tipped with 
long hairs. Pedicles in the lower flowers scarcely any, 
in the upper ones very long and thickly clothed with 
long white hairs. Calyx 5-cleft, smooth, segments 
widely lanceolate, obtuse, revolute. Petals 5, nearly 
equal, roundly obovate, of a dark brown or nearly 
black, edged with a greenisli yellow. Filaments 10, 
united at the base, 5 only bearing anthers ; of these the 
four lower ones are longest and subulate, the upper one 
widened and spatulate, bent in at the point and re- 
flexed so as almost to hide the anther : the barren ones 
are all shorter and bent at the points, the two upper 
ones standing out from the others nearly as in Cam- 
pylia. Pollen pale yellow. Germen villous. Style 
green, hairy on the lower part and smooth on the upper. 
Stigmas 5, of a black colour, spreading. 
Our drawing of this very distinct and curious spe- 
cies was taken at the Nursery of Mr. Colvill, who 
received several roots of it from the Cape, with many 
other curious species. It differs so much from all the 
others with which we are acquainted, that it might 
with propriety be formed into a distinct genus, being 
intermediate between our Section Mmiospatalla and the 
genus Campylia. We suspect that P. sanguineum, 
which at the time we published it we believed to be a 
real species, will prove to be a mule between the pre- 
sent plant and V.fulgidum; but this is mere surmise. 
The leaves of the present species remind us of a 
large Fern or of Chcerophyllum temulum; the unco- 
loured one in our plate is only a diminished outline. 
It thrives well in a mixture of turfy loam, peat, and 
sand, and propagates freely from the tubers of the 
roots. 
