221 
WIT8ENIA MAURA. 
(° 
ARK-FLOWERED WITSENIA 
0 
CLASS. 
TRIANDRIA. 
ORDER. 
MONOGYNIA. 
NATURAL ORDER. 
IRIDACEiE. 
Generic Character. — Calyoc none. Corolla erect, regular, nearly equal, persistent, tubulose, with 
a five (rarely six) parted limb. Stamens included, erect, affixed at the base to the exterior lobes. 
Germen inferior, or partially superior, many-seeded. Style filiform, exserted. Stigma obsoletely 
three-lobed. Capsule woody, ovately- trigonal, three-celled, three-valved ; valves bearing the seeds 
in the middle. Seeds in two rows, angular. 
Specific Character. — Plant an evergreen shrub, growing two feet high and upwards. Stems erect, 
branching slightly. Leaves embracing the stem at the base, long, thick, channelled, acuminate. 
Spathes unequal, arranged in pairs on a common peduncle, distichously spicate, or sessile on the end 
of the stem ; each pair having foliaceous, distichous, imbricated scales. Corolla cylindrically club- 
shaped ; tube green, somewhat rough, becoming blackish at the top, four times longer than the limb ; 
lobes ovate, attenuated ; exterior discoloured, covered with short yellowish down ; interior streaked 
with yellow near the summit. 
No general observer who is acquainted with the delightful Witsenia corymbosa 
would imagine that this singular species belonged to the same genus, were there 
not a trifling similarity in the appearance of the foliage. The very curious flowers 
of the present plant are so different from the apparently simple blue blossoms of 
its ally, that a botanist, or one skilled in the knowledge of botanical characters, 
could alone recognise the affinity. 
Mr. Masson first sent plants of this species to Kew Gardens, in 1790, from the 
Cape of Good Hope, and it blossomed originally at Messrs. Lee’s of the Hammersmith 
Nursery. Its cultivation has never been much extended ; but latterly it has been 
lost to the majority of collections. Indeed, though the accompanying representa- 
tion was made at Messrs. Rollisson s, Tooting, about two years ago, their plant, 
which was then a fine specimen, has subsequently perished ; and we believe it is in 
few of the Metropolitan nurseries, except Mr. Low’s of Clapton, who informs us 
that it bloomed with him in the late summer. 
