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HERMÏONE aperticorona.
Spreading Orange-crowned Hermione.
Linnean Class and Order. H E X A N D R IA M O N O G Y N IA .
Natural Order. AM A R Y L L ID EÆ . Brotvn prodr. 1. p . 296.
Subordo V . N a r c i s s in e æ . Haw. Monogr. p . 1.
H E R M IO N E . Suprà fol. 118. series 2.
B.. aperticorma, subsexflora; corollæ laciniis subrotundo-ovalibus semi-
reflexis valdè imbricatis tubo brevioribus flavis coronâ patulâ plicatira
subrepandâ aurantiacâ sesquiduplô longioribus. Nobis l. c. p . 9.
This beautiful species of Hermione, comes into flower very
soon after the more common H. cupularis, (the Soleil D or of
the gardens;) and although a smaller and paler flowered plant
than that lofty species, its individual blossoms are sometimes
larger, and, perhaps, more elegant and graceful.
The bulbous root, although I have cultivated the plant
more than twenty years, I never saw half the size of a man s
fist, which that of the Soieil U o r is said often to surpass.
The leaves are 3 or 4 in number, strap-shaped, erect, shorter
than the flower-stalk at the time of blooming, perhaps, flatter
than usual among its nearest affinities, and likewise inore
blunt pointed; of a glaucescent colour, or often nearly deep
green, and slightly striated longitudinally; of the width m
flowering plants of ten lines, but in younger plants tar less.
The scape, ox flower-stem, is somewhat cylmdraceous, less
compressed, of the colour of, and striated like the leaves,
and rises to the heighth of about 12 or 14 inches, which is
little more than half that of the Soleil D'or. The spathe, ox
sheath which contains the flowers, is of a dark or brownish
colour, and of a membranaceous or filmy texture, and be
comes, finally, dry parched and scariose. The flowers ap-
lear in the middle of April, very soon after those ot
H. cupularis; they are in well-grown plants about b m
number, forming an elegant umbel, and their 6 segments
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