GRIFFINIA HYACINTHINA. 
(HyacintF-blue flowering Griffinia.) 
Class. 
HEXANDRIA. 
Generic Character. — Spathe two-valved, shorter 
i lian the many-flowered umbel. Corolla funnel-shaped, 
odding; tube short; limb six-parted, unequal, bila- 
iately campanulate. Filaments inserted at the top of 
A e tube, alternately longer, one rising, the others 
eclinate. Anthers incumbent. Germen three-celled. 
tigma simple. Capsule pedunculate, membranous. 
eeds solitary, obovate, ventricose, shining, whitish 
chre-coloured. 
Specific Character.— PZ ani a bulbous perennial. 
Order. 
MONOGYNIA. 
Bulb tunicate, ovate. Leaves two or three, recumbent, 
petiolate, ovate-oblong, abruptly pointed, latticed by 
veins crossing the vertical nerves ; midrib prominent 
beneath. Scape cylindrical, longer than the leaves. 
Umbel nearly sessile, sub-capitate. Flowers with 
intervening bracts. Corolla ringent, funnel-shaped, 
unequal ; tube several times shorter than the limb, 
bent forward, cylindrical ; throat naked, sub-ventri- 
cose; segments lanceolate, more or less undulated, 
upper ones erect and conniving. 
Natural Order 
AMARYLLIDACEA3. 
In the tribe of Amaryllids — those “ lilies of the field,” there are many fair 
lowers that deserve all the care of the culturist who aims at the production of a 
orgeous mass of bloom. The present is one of them, and one which, although it 
! as been many years known in Britain, is far from being common. It is on this 
ccount, and because — unlike the majority of the species enrolled with it in this 
xtensive natural order — the prevailing hue of the flower is a beautiful ultramarine 
lue of the richest description, that we have been induced to give it a place in our 
i lagazine. 
A figure was given some years since in the “ Botanical Magazine,” and the 
ccompanying letter- press states that it was discovered in Brazil by Mr. E. 
llordford, during his residence in that country, and imported to England about 
lie year 1815, by Mr. Griffin, of South Lambeth. 
The genus is closely related to Amaryllis ; and, indeed, when this species was 
atroduced, it was not considered to be sufficiently distinct from that fg-mily to 
warrant the establishment of a new genus. It was not till the addition of a 
scond plant (G. parmfiora) presenting the same anomaly to the primitive 
haracters of Amaryllis., that a separation was made under the title of Griffinia. 
)ur subject is by far the most handsome and largest-flowering of the three species 
ow in the country ; and there is a peculiar softness in the tint of the corolla — 
iich as Nature alone can lend, that contributes much to the interest it excites, 
'here are several varieties of it, differing chiefly in the length and comparative 
