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ones naked at the base ; the inner ones strongly ribbed up
the centre, and bearing a thin connected white scale on the
inside a little above the base, very different from those in
E. longifolium. Stamms 6, inserted in the base of the perianthium:
filaments thin and flat, every other one rather
broadest, inserted in the base of the anthers: anthers erect,
two-celled, extending to the end of the style. Ovarium
nearly as broad as long, three-sided, deeply 3-furrowed,
narrowing to the base, three-celled, many-seeded. Style
slender at the base, thickening upwards. Stigma_ 3-cleit,
the segments spreading, channelled on the upper side, but
quite entire; in both varieties of E. longifolium they are
cleft at the points.
We do not know that there has ever been a figure of the
present plant published in any English work, the one published
in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine by that name, being
quite a different species; it appears very strange that the
two plants have been cultivated so many years, without any
person having noticed the striking specific differences,
though these were well known to the old Botanists; we are
obliged to Mr. T. Milne, of the Fulham Nursery, where
our drawing was made, for first pointing out to us that they
were certainly very distinct species; and on examining
them, we found several essential characters to distinguish
them apart immediately, one of which is, the present species
has the segments of the stigma entire, its leaves are
oval, bluntish, and rounded at the base: m V . longifolium
the segments of the stigma are all bifid at the points, the
leaves are much longer and narrower, and attenuated to the
base and point, and the flower is nearly twice the size, and
the leaflets of the perianthium much broader : the bifid segments
of the stigma are shown in the figures of Clusius, and
Lobel, so that their plants are certainly the same; they are
both quite hardy, and succeed well in the common flower
borders; the present species produces numerous offsets
from the root, the other not so m an y ; they may also be
increased by seeds; the present one is a native of Germany,
and needs not the least protection.
The generic name is derived from spvOpog, red, from the
red and purple spots and patches on the leaves.
1. One of the outer leaflets of the Perianthium, naked at tlie bottom, the Staiiien
inserted in the base. 2. One of the inner leaflets, furnished with a vhite scale a little
above the base. 3. Ovarium, terminated by the Style and trifid Stigma, the segments
entire at the points.
Sii