10 
Hexakdhia Lik»/ii. 
DELICATE amaryllis, 
amaryllis ORIenTALIS. 
rp H E former Specie.,, obtain’d from by its uncommon lurtre, the epithet 
I o Fo..os:ss.m. ; Most Be.uTtrue: perhaps this will make the title doubt 
Its profufton mthe ent.rc.clufter ts a great glory ; and the more elegant, though fain er 
colour, entttles tt well to the add.t.on Deucats. At times it has flowerH in the 
EUKOPE..N Stoves : but tins has been fo feldom, and with fo much variation, from the 
more or lefs advantageous management, that they who poffefs'd the feveral Plants doubted 
whether or not they were the fame Speaes ; and the good Heister lately thought it fo 
glorious and fo wonderful a fight, that when it burft for Flower, he wrote upon the 
garden gates an invitation to fuperior beings, to come down and look upon it. He 
thought the Plant that flower d with him difterent from what had been deferib’d bv 
others, but ’twas only that it blow’d lefs perfeclly. This is the afpeft of the cluftcr in 
perfeaion, as it flower’d in China, though ’ti^ otherwife the fame with his ; as his own 
Root and Leaves here figur’d alfo lliew. ’ 
The Stalk is robuft, upright, and crown’d at firfl with a vaft fingle bud, confiding 
of many Flowers in a kind of Scabbard. When this burfts they throw themfelves na- 
turally into a rounded form, and play in various elevations ; their colour, which is pale 
at firfl, grows ftronger as they ftand ; and the whole clufter remains a long time in per- 
feflion. The Flower has nothing of that fingularity which is fo confpicuous in the pre- 
ceding Species ; but it is not altogether regular, the Petals not being of equal length. 
The characters of the fixth Clafs, the Hexandria, are as confpicuous and evident in this 
as in the lafl: named Species ; and thele bulbous Plants very happily fliew that diftinclion, 
which, though as certain in all others, is often obfeur’d by the fmallnefs of the parts, 
or by their fituation in the depth of the Flower. 
There is fomething that deferves notice in the fcabbard of this Plant ; the filmy fub- 
flance, which performs the office of a Cup, and holds the young Flowers, till they are 
ripe for burfting : tho’ the materials of this, and the form, properly fpeaking, are the 
fame as in the other kind, yet the bignefs here makes a ftriking difference ; and it is more 
durable, and is not wholly deftitute of colour. It is perhaps the mofl elegant of its 
kind ; and is the next thing in degree to the Cup of the HEmanthus, which the incu- 
rious fuppofc a Flower. The term Scabbard, Spatha, is given to this kind of filmy 
fubftance, fupplying the place and office of a Cup ; but there is allb another apparent 
■particularity in this Plant, thofe crimfon threads which lie among the Footftalks of the 
Flowers rifing from the fame bafe. All who faw them wonder’d : but ’tis their colour 
only which is particular. They are of the nature of thofe Films call’d Siipuls in other 
Plants, and there are the fame fubftances exaftly, only white, in every common many- 
flower’d Narciffus. 
Amaryllis Spaiha multiflora, corollis insequalibus, foliis linguiformibus. 
