those who insist upon the generic differences of this species 
to found an argument upon its peculiar habit. 
_ Root branched, with a few flexuose rootlets of a dull 
colour. Stem erect, round, smooth, covered with scales, 
formed by the scars of the leaves. Leaves dull green, 
clustered in a circle around the top of the stem, sessile, 
two-edged, a little thickened just at the base, solid, some- 
what striated, smooth, flaccid, with a bony sphacelated 
point, the edges, when the leaves are old, becoming fila- 
mentous. Scape central, simple, erect, round, smooth, 
somewhat striated, covered at the base with lanceolate, 
dentate scales, towards the summit covered with flowers, 
which have a dense, interrupted, spiral arrangement. 
Flowers sessile, in pairs, arranged in a very long spike, 
with a linear-lanceolate, somewhat ciliated bractea, nearly 
as long as the flower, yellowish, with a dingy green cast ; 
at the base of each flower are two other bracteole, with 
an ovate-acute figure, a ciliated margin, and a scariose 
texture. Corolla (perianthium) tubular-campanulate, hex- 
angular, with a six-cleft, revolute limb, and lanceolate 
segments. laments erect, inserted into the base of the 
segments, and twice longer than it. Anthers large, versa- 
tile, oblong, furrowed lengthwise. Germen (ovary) inferior, 
ovate, with 6 angles. Style erect, simple, round, thick- 
ened upwards, a little longer than the corolla. Stigma 
inconspicuous. Capsule many-seeded, 3-cornered. Seeds 
inserted in a double row, half orbicular, flat, shining, 
black. 
J. L. 
