247 
MGIDELLA FLAMMEA. 
CLASS. 
MONADELPHIA. 
(flame-coloured stiff-stalk.) 
NATURAL ORDER. 
ORDER. 
TRIANDRIA. 
IRIDACEjE. 
Generic Character. — Perianth three-leaved ; leaves imbricated at the base, convolute, bound together 
below the middle ; limb concave, revolute, spirally twisted after expansion. Stamens three, joined 
together in an exserted tube. Anthers linear, erect, free. Stigmas three, bipartite, appendiculate 
at the back, opposite the anthers ; lobes linear, papillose at the apex. Capsule papyraceous, apex 
thrce-valved, many-seeded. Seeds subglobose, dotted. Raphe and chalaza conspicuous. 
Specific Character.— Plant perennial, having a corm-like bulb at its roots, growing about three feet high. 
Leaves equitant, plaited, sheathing, somewhat dilated at the base. Flowers fasciculate, flame- 
coloured, terminal, drooping, enclosed within a two-valved spathe, with a campanulate tube, and a 
reflexed limb. Peduncles, while the flowers are open, bent downwards ; afterwards, when the fruit is 
ripening, perfectly erect. 
This extraordinary and very showy plant, which constitutes a genus entirely 
different from any previously described, was discovered 
by Mr. Hartweg, an active collector in the employ of the 
Horticultural Society, during the earlier period of his tours 
in Mexico, and safely transmitted to that body, in whose 
gardens at Chiswick it flowered in 1839. From seeds 
received by Mr. Groom, nurseryman of Walworth, plants 
have since been raised ; and after blooming specimens of 
these which were observed in the nursery of this gentleman 
*n the autumn of the present year, the drawing now 
submitted has been prepared. 
It is one of those remarkable floral objects which, while 
it arrests our admiration by the beauty of its blossoms, their 
vivid colour, and the prettily diversified hue of the 
anthers, demands more than usual scrutiny from the 
peculiarity of its structure, and the strange elasticity 
residing in its flower-stalks. The perianth, or coloured 
portion of the flower, is said to be destitute of a tube or 
petals, and curiously convolute at its base ; its nerves contracting, and the whole 
rolling itself up in the manner of a screw after having been open a short time. The 
