282 
AMARYLLIDACE.'E. 
I believe all Brunsvigias have a cartilagineous margin 
and broad recumbent leaves ; but if Brunsvigia is, as I be- 
lieve it to be, distinct from Amaryllis, the distinguishing 
features are the triangular capsule, which is almost winged 
and diaphanous, and the petaline filaments not adhering to 
the petals. The genus was founded by Heister on multiflora, 
without any statement of the points by which it was to be 
separated from Amaryllis, but merely a description of that 
specific plant ; it was adopted by others who distinguished 
it, not from the Linnaean Amaryllis, but from the mass of 
discordant plants accumulated under that name, or rather 
from an imperfect view of some of them ; so that the cha- 
racter given became unavoidably more objectionable than 
the silence of Heister. I mentioned in the Appendix fifteen 
years ago that Josephiniana disagreed with multiflora in the 
insertion of its filaments, and in that point, as well as its tube 
and germen, I saw that it agreed nearly with blanda, but I 
was deterred by the curvature of its corolla from removing it 
from the genus where it had been placed. The fact, that 
Blanda has bred with it, is decisive that the other points 
mentioned furnish the true generic features, and the di- 
versity of perianth is such as occurs also in Nerine. Joseph, 
not having bred with Multiflora at the same time, goes some 
way to uphold the diversity of the genus Brunsvigia : but my 
information is not sufficient to pronounce decidedly on its 
validity, though I believe in it. I know the capsule of Mul- 
tiflora, Striata, and minor, which all disagree with Ama- 
ryllis. I do not know the fruit of A. Grandiflora, B. radu- 
losa and radula, nor have I had any opportunity of ascer- 
taining the insertion of their filaments, or those of Striata 
with exactness. There is, however, no fact ascertained 
which can throw a doubt on the genus Brunsvigia, except a 
general similarity of aspect in the umbels of Josephiniana 
and Multiflora, which awakens my suspicions, and I wish all 
those who have flowering Brunsvigias would try whether 
they can obtain a cross between them and Belladonna. In 
bulbs of this order I have often observed an imperfect bulb- 
coat acting like an internal bracte to enclose the incipient 
inflorescence. In Crinum Cruentum it is prolonged into a 
narrow lorate leaf, which indicates long beforehand the for- 
mation of blossom in the bulb. In Am. Josephiniana there 
are many half-bulb-coats, opposite and alternate. 
