AMARYLLIDACEiE. 
189 
It is very remarkable that this plant should have been 
described above 200 years ago by Clusius, with particulars 
concerning it which as yet we only know from his report, 
and with a precise indication of the spot in which it still 
grows spontaneously, and that no botanist, as far as I can 
perceive, has since noticed his account of the plant under 
the name Sparganium Pla^ae, by which it is indicated on 
the margin of the page in which it is described. He states 
that it was pointed out to him in its native locality, on the 
stony heights above Valentia, by Dr. Pla^a, a physician of 
that town ; and in that very spot it is still pointed out by 
Lagasca, as growing amongst the clefts of rocks, without any 
reference to Clusius. It is difficult to understand, even in 
the vague state of botany at that period, how Dr. Pla^a 
should have looked upon it to be a Sparganium, which is 
an ancient name for a genus of a very different family, but 
there is no reason for rejecting the specific name which 
Clusius gave to it in commemoration of its first discoverer. 
It seems to have been rather overlooked than intentionally 
laid aside, and as the later name has had little currency I 
have thought it undoubtedly proper to restore the original 
one. According to Clusius it usually has two leaves, in 
form like those of Oporanthus luteus, but marked with a 
longitudinal white stripe. He states the seeds, which are 
not noticed by Lagasca, to be small and angular. I con- 
jecture the scape to be solid, and the seeds testaceous. It is 
strange that Spanish plants of such easy access, and whose 
locality is so well known, as Lapiedra and Tapeinanthus, 
should never have been brought into cultivation, nor speci- 
mens even introduced into any herbarium. Lapiedra appears 
to be one of the points by which Amaryllidese approach the 
hypogynous Allium and Ornithogalum. If the seeds, con- 
trary to my expectation, should prove to be fleshy, which I 
think very improbable, the genus would properly follow 
Carpolyza. According to Lagasca it grows also near the 
church of San Fuen, near Algesiras, and near Malaga, and 
it might certainly be easily obtained. The anthers are 
asserted to be arrow-headed and incumbent ; with the form 
of an arrow-head I should have expected them rather to be 
erect, like those of Hypoxis. The plant having been called 
a Crinum, I assume it to be schistandrous ; it may, how- 
ever, prove to be porandrous, it which case it would 
stand amongst Galantheae, probably next to Leucojum. 
