216 
AMARYLLIDACEjE. 
staminiferis ; bulbo quam maxime prolifero, foliis 
erectis nitentibus bipedalibus, vix unciam latis, 
canaliculato-costatis, inferne attenuatis. 
These are all distinguished from the rest of the genus by 
the adherence of the lower part of the limb to the cup ; they 
are much hardier than the rest of the genus and are decidedly 
aquatic or swamp plants. Jacquin has stated positively 
that var. 1. grows on the island of Tierra Bomba near Car- 
thagena, lat. 11. The identity of his litoralis, as well as that 
of Mr. Salisbury, with the variety 1. of this species is un- 
questionable, but I consider it impossible that his statement 
should be correct that it grows on the sea-level so near the 
line, or that it can be the plant found by Humboldt between 
that place and Portobello in the sea-sand. I purchased the 
plant above 20 years ago at the Hammersmith nursery under 
the name P. Mexicanum, and Mr. Kennedy asserted it to 
be from Mexico, and Mr. Loddiges has lately imported many 
bulbs which appear to be similar, direct from Mexico. It 
is so hardy that an offset which I set against the front wall 
of the stove about 14 years ago, grew vigorously there, and 
although the snow lay upon it some weeks the first winter, 
its leaves were not killed quite to the ground, and it grew 
into a tuft with many offsets, and flowers most summers. I 
lately submerged a pot of seedlings of this variety in a cool 
cistern in the stove, and the plants immediately began to 
grow rapidly, and young white fibres formed themselves 
abundantly on the surface of the earth, and some of them are 
now floating in the water. Amoena, speciosa, and angusta, 
planted against the same wall of the stove close beside it, not 
only perished in the winter, but could not thrive in the sum- 
mer. I think therefore that I may venture to say that 
Jacquin must have been deceived by some confusion of labels, 
and that this plant, which he has called litoralis as growing 
on the sea-shore in an ardent situation, cannot be the plant 
that grows there ; and that if Angusta and Tenuiflora be not 
the real inhabitants of that coast, the true litoralis has not 
yet been introduced into Europe, and is not the plant he has 
described and represented. If it can grow naturally in such 
a burning sand, and yet thrive with increased vigour in 
water in a cool situation, and flourish under snow, it must 
have a constitution different from that of all other vege- 
tables. I have had this plant with 16 flowers on a scape. 
Var. 2. and 3. are only distinguished by a little difference of 
