; ! I
in aestivation, above of a milk white, underneath of a livid
purple. Stamens 4, didynamous, inserted in the mouth of
the corolla. Filaments very short, compressed, glabrous.
Anthers exserted, linear, 1-lobed, yellow, bursting lengthways,
attached to a thick, carinate, green connectivum, the
upper pair smaller. Ovarium oblong, cylindrical, bilocular,
with numerous minute ovula closely packed on two placentae.
Style filiform, white, smooth. Stigma simple, long,
linear, blunt, fiat, loriform, revolute, copiously papillose,
especially at the edges.
This forms a very pretty border flower during the Summer
months, thriving in a mixture of sandy peat and loam,
and is readily increased both by seeds and cuttings. A
supply of the latter should be put in, in the Autumn, and
kept in the greenhouse, or in the propagating pit, until the
middle of May, when they are to be planted out in the open
border. Its blossoms are very elegant, expanding only in
the evening, or in cloudy weather, and they are then highly
fragrant.
The genus is a very natural one, and is essentially distinguished
from Erinus and Buchnera by the structure of the
anthers and stigma, and by the insertion of the filaments.
I t will contain, besides the species now under consideration,
Erinusfragrans, tristis, anAafricanus, of Linnaeus, all natives
of the Cape, and agreeing remarkably both in habit and
structure.
Our drawing was taken in September last from a plant
in the open border, in Mr. Neill’s collection, at Canonmills,
near Edinburgh.
The fiowers of all the species expanding at night, the
genus has very appropriately been named Nycterinia, from
vvKTipivog, nocturnal. D. Don.
1. S tam e n s , 2 . P is til.