99 
GLADIOLUS RAMOSUS. 
(branching corn-flag.) 
class, order. 
TRIANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. 
natural order. 
IRIDACEiE. 
Generic Character. — Vide vol. ii. p. 197. 
Specific Character. — Plant a corm. Stem erect, four to five feet high, branched ; branches ascending. 
Leaves entire, long, lanceolate, acuminate, five-nerved, whitish green. Flowers terminal, spicate, 
sessile, alternate, large. Bracts ovate, acuminate, striated, enveloping the tube of the perianth. 
Perianth composed of six segments ; upper three broadly oblong, obluse, deep blush colour ; lower 
three narrower, emarginate, rich sanguineous red towards the base. Stamens three ; filaments 
distinct. Anthers attached to the filaments by their middle, blue. Style longer than the stamens, 
three-lobed. 
The splendid genus of which the present plant forms a distinguished feature, 
is far from being regarded with the attention it deserves. In many collections, 
and even among those of the highest order, its most showy species are scarcely 
allowed a place ; while it is only in a few isolated instances that they are cul- 
tivated in an appropriate manner, and attain that degree of perfection which, 
when once witnessed, invariably secures them from further neglect. 
G. ramosus is a rare and highly valuable plant, introduced to this country 
from Holland about three years since, but a native of the Cape of Good Hope. 
In the size and beauty of its flowers it yields to none of its congeners ; and on 
account of its peculiarly branching habit, it may be considered the most orna- 
mental species of the genus. By the possession of the character just referred to, 
it is enabled to produce a much greater number of flowers, and these are arranged 
with much better effect than those of the species with simple stems. 
Messrs. Lucombe and Pince, nurserymen, Exeter, kindly forwarded to us the 
accompanying drawing of this plant in the autumn of 1838. It flowered most 
profusely in the garden of those gentlemen in the month of July of that year, 
having been planted out in the open ground in the early part of the preceding 
spring. 
