326 
AMARYLLlDACEiE. 
much longer and more acute ; and as serotina 
occupies a very wide range in Spain, Sardinia, 
Naples, and Africa, with a one- (rarely two-) flow- 
ered scape, without varying its form of flower, 1 
think the many-flowered plant of Desfontaines re- 
quires to be distinguished. Both are remarkable 
for the erect posture of the flowers. According to 
Zerapha (Flor. Melit. thes.) this many-flowered 
plant, with lanceolate segments, and a very short 
entire crenulate cup, grows in the island of Malta, 
where it is called Rangis mewahhar. N. oblite- 
ratus Willd. Reliq. Schultes is probably this plant. 
2. Serotina. — PI. 41. f. 39. and 36. Tube near half 
an inch, limb broader than in elegans, about 7-16ths 
long. The former represents the tube, cup, and 
sepal, from G.Bentham, Esq.’s Sardinian specimens; 
tube more or less enlarged in different specimens; 
the latter Desfontaines’s outline of the African spe- 
cimens, verified by comparison with the Sardinian. 
Scape 1-2-flowered; tube 9-16‘ths, limb 7-16'ths, 
white, cup 1 - 1 6 1 h , yellow; flow'er erect; flowering 
usually before the appearance of the leaves. Found 
in Spain, near Badajos, in Sardinia, Naples, and 
North Africa. A miserable engraving of this plant 
by Clusius was evidently copied and grossly exag- 
gerated by Parkinson, who does not on this occa- 
sion deserve the name of faithful, given to him by 
Flaworth, having set leaves or bractes on the scape. 
Miller described the stalk of serotina to be knotted; 
Tenore has given a like description, and authors 
have been deceived into a belief that the plant has 
an articulate scape, quite repugnant to the cha- 
racter of the suborder. Desfontaines takes no notice 
of this supposed phenomenon, and represents the 
scape like that of other Amaryllidean plants. On 
examination of many specimens, it appears that 
the knots exist in a very small proportion of them, 
quite irregular in their number and position, not 
being articulations but swellings of the scape, and I 
apprehend they must have been occasioned by the 
deposit of theeggand larva of some very small insect. 
F. 30. represents three such knots on the lower part 
of the scape of one of the Sardinian specimens. 
