BRODLEA GRANDIFLORA. 
(Large-flowering Brodisea.) 
Class. order. 
TRIANDRIAo MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
LILIACEiE. 
Generic Character. — Perianth eomplanate, six- 
cleft, persistent ; with three scales at the throat, oppo- 
site the exterior segments, sometimes anther- bearing. 
Scales three, fleshy, hypogynous. Stamens three, in- 
serted in the throat, alternate with the scales. Anthers 
two-lobed at base. Style continuous, with the ovary 
awl-shaped. Stigma three-lobed. Capsule clothed, with 
the perianth, obovate, pedicellate, three-celled ; cells 
three-valved. Seeds four or five in a cell, black, obovate, 
striated,peltate; testa membranous. Chalaza depressed. 
Specific Character.— Root small, bulbous. Leaves 
radical, spreading, linear, acuminate, channelled. 
Scape erect, terete, slender, about afoot high. Flowers 
umbellate, corymbose, pedunculate ; scales short, few, 
scarious. Peduncles usually in six or seven pairs. 
Perianth a delicate blue; tube six-streaked ; limb 
spreading, longer ; segments oblong-linear, somewhat 
obtuse, the outer ones narrower. Scales ligulate. 
Synonyme. — Hookeria corondria. 
To many of our readers we have no doubt that the present is a very familiar 
plant : nevertheless, it is one of many of its class that we could point to, which 
receive much less attention than their merits deserve, and which are perhaps less 
favoured, because they are suffered to blossom singly, instead of in extensive and 
rather dense masses. An individual plant of Brodicea grandiflora would certainly 
have a somewhat meagre appearance on a lawn, with its narrow, scarce leaves and 
long flower-stems ; but plant a number of bulbs closely in a bed, and they will form 
in their flowering time ( July and August) a sheet of the most delicate blue. 
Another plant adapted for the same kind of treatment, and not much unlike the 
present in general appearance, is the Triteleia laxa, a very beautiful bulb, but not 
so easily procured as our subject. The appearance of the species might also be 
improved by planting some small, quick-growing creeper in the same bed, to cover 
the soil with green foliage. 
Bulbous plants of this description are admirable subjects for ornamenting the 
open patches amongst rockwork. These places might easily be rendered more gay 
with such flowers, and without, as we conceive, any offence to taste, if only 
judiciously and not too lavishly disposed. 
The B. grandiflora appears to have been first introduced about the close of the 
last century ; but perhaps the greater portion of the plants now in the country 
have proceeded from later importations. It was detected by Mr. Douglas during 
his botanical travels in North- West America, and transmitted to the Horticultural 
