: :
erect and spreading, exceeding half an inch in length ; inner ones
with broader whitish claws, copiously papillose within, furnished at
the base with an oblong callous pit of an olive colour, and at the disk
with a large semicircular dark purple spot, having a whitish centre ;
the claws of the 2 upper ones connivent ; the lower one recurved and
spreading, with a narrower claw. Stamens 6, declined, inserted at the
base of the segment of the perianthium ; the 3 opposite the inner seo--
ments longer. Filaments awl-shaped, white, copiously furnished at
the middle with papillæ. Anthers incumbent, 2-celled, of a brown-
purple. Ovarium. 3-celled, 3-sided, with 3 additional but scarcely
perceptible angles. Style triquetrous, shorter than the stamens, with
minute, elevated, scattered, violet dots. Stigma trifid, with oblong,
obtuse, recurved, copiously papillose lobes. Capsule rounded, turbinate,
3-sided, terminated by a broad, elevated angular disk, 3-celled.
Seeds many, globose.
That this is the plant of Feuillée no one can possibly doubt after
comparing it with the figure and description of that accurate author,
from whom alone Linnæus took up the species, as he never saw a specimen
of it, and he has marked the plant in the Species .Plantarum, as
one with vvhich he was unacquainted, except from the source
above-mentioned. He afterwards, however, confounded with it an
analogous species from the West Indies, a drawing of which he had
received from Baron Alstrcimer, and to the latter plant the whole
of the description in the Supplementum of the Younger Linnæus
applies, and not to the Chilian plant of Feuillée, and it is also
the Salsilla of all subsequent authors. The two plants are most
essentially different both in their leaves and flowers, and W'e have
therefore restored to the former its proper, although long-usurped
appellation, leaving to the West Indian p ant the name oí edulis, first
given to itbyTussac in his “ Flore des Antilles.”
This very elegant species of Alstroemeria yras introduced in 1831
frona Chili, where it appears to be very common, especially about Conception
and Valparaiso, whence we have specimens from Messieurs
Caldcleugh, Cuming, and Bridges.
The plant will be found to succeed well in a warm sheltered border.
I t should be planted in a soil composed of peat and loam, with a proportion
of well-rotted manure, and it may be increased both by parting
the roots, and by seeds.
Our drawing was taken in May 1833 from a fine plant which blossomed
in Mr. Knight’s choice collection. King’s Road, Chelsea.
The genus was named by Linnæus after his friend and patron Baron
Alstriimer, a great promoter of Botany, and from whom he had
received coloured drawings of some species of it. D. Bon.
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