[ 622 ]
F R I T I L L A R I A Meleagris.
Common F r it illa r y .
H E X J ND R IA Monogynia.
G en, Char. Cor. inferior, bell-fhaped, of 6 petals, each
marked with a honey-bearing cavity above its claw.
Stamina as long as the corolla. Cal. none. 'Seeds
flat.
Spec. Char. All the leaves alternate. Stem flngle-
flowered. Nedtary linear.
S yn. Fritillaria Meleagris. Linn. Sp. P I. 436. Hudf.
144. With. 335. Relh. 137. Sibth. 1 1 o. Abbot. 75.
Curt. Lond. fa fc . 3. t. 20. Dick/. I I . Sice. fa fc . 9. 3 .
F . variegata. Ger. em. 149.
I f we allow the Leucojum a place in a work on Britifli plants,
we cannot helitate about the Fritillaria, which, though not
noticed by Ray or Dillenius, is very common in various parts
of Middlefex, as well as in Suffolk and other counties. Mrs.Cob-
bold fent it from little Stonham, with the preceding, Ornitho-
galum umbellatum, and Colchicum autumnale; and Mr. Murray,
from Reading. It grows in moift paftures or meadows, is perennial,
flowering in May, and the bloffoms are frequently found
white.
Root a fmall roundilh or depreffed bulb. Stem erect, about
a ,foot high, perfectly unbranched, annual, round, fmooth, leafy.
Leaves alternate, almoft linear, pointed, fomewhat glaucous.
One folitary drooping flower of great beauty terminates the
Item. It is bell-fhaped, of fix equal concave petals, elegantly
chequered with pale and dark purple. Each petal, juft above
its bafe, has a central longitudinal furrow, of a linear fhape, not
round as in F. pyrenaica (which is, like this, common in gardens),
the cavity of which is filled with honey. The antheras
are flightly attached by the back, as in the Paflion-flower. The
ftigma is three-cleft. Seeds numerous, flat, clofely packed in
the three-celled capfule.