years ago. D blossomed for tbe first time in Europe, in the late
Mr. Walker’s choice collection, at Arno’s Grove, near Southgate,
and was shortly afterwards published in tbe Botanical Magazine,
under the name of Conanthera bifolia, it being then regarded as
identical with the plant of the Flora Peruviana. Had it not been
for the corroboration afforded by the excellent figure and description
of Fenillee, there might have been reason to question the accuracy
of the representation given in the Flora Pe ruviana; as a hexaphyl-
lous perianthium, with an inferior ovarium, was a structure scarcely
to be looked for in this class of plants; but specimens of the true
Conanthera bifolia, lately collected near Santiago in Chile by mv
friend Mr. Caldcleugh, and now deposited in the Lambertian Herbarium,
remove all doubt as to the distinction of the two plants,
and readily explain the apparently paradoxical structure above
mentioned. In the greater part of Asphodelea the pedicellus is
articulated, and in some genera this articulation is placed immediately
under the perianthium, so as to be easily overlooked, but by
an experienced observer. In Conanthera and Cummingia, from the
ovarium being immersed in the dilated apex of the pedicellus, the
articulation, although present, is still less apparent, being situated
near the summit of the ovarium, where the base of the perianthium
separates spontaneously. The anthers are composed of four valves
with involute margins, and when cut across they appear four-celled ;
the dorsal portion extends considerably beyond the extremity of
the valves, forming with them an oblong, oblique, aperture,
through which the pollen is emitted, for, although the valves are
free along their whole length, the pollen is clearly not emitted laterally.
The stigma is truncate, and not acute. The capsule internally
from the separation of the septa, is really tripartible, and
although polyspermous, it may he compared to the fruit oi Euphorbia,
wherein the septa are also distinct.”
“ Conanthera differs from Cummingia, nearly as Hyadnthus does
from Scilla, in having a deeply divided perianthinm; the segments,
however, are not, as in Scilla, separate quite to the base, but are'
connected together by the dilated filaments. The comparison between
the flowers of Conanthera, from their reflexed segments and
converging anthers, and those of Dodecatheon, is more apparent,
than between them and those of Solanum. The genus Echeandia of
Ortega, referred by Persoon to Conanthera, is widely removed from
it by having a free capsule with polyspermous cells,"filaments elongated
and glandular, anthers simple and obtuse at the apex, and the
pedicles jointed at the middle, as in the normal group of Aspho-
D E L K A . ”
“ The genus is named in compliment to Lady Gordon Gumming,
whose attachment to the science of Botany justly entitles her to this
distinction.”
For the above account we are indebted to Mr. David Don. Our
drawing was made from a plant that flowered in April last, in the
choice collection of A. Arcedeckne, Esq. of Glevering Hall, near
Wickham Market, Suffolk. I t will doubtless succeed well with the
treatment of Tigridia pavonia, and other rather tender bulbs, to be
planted about six inches deep in the ground, and to be taken up in
Winter, or to be covered with straw or mats.
1. The 6 Stamens, inserted in the tuhe of the Perianthium, the tube spread
open and divested of its upper part, showing the-short dilated filaments, and
long anthers that are bifid at the points. 2. The half inferior Ovarium, term!-
nated by the Style and simple Stigma,