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PLATE CI.
H Y P O X I S STELLATA.
Star-flowered Hypoxis.
CLASS VL ORDER L
HEXANDRIA MONOGYNIJ. Six Chives. One Pointai.
GENERIC
CALYX. Gluma bivalvis.
COROLL A monopetala, fupera; limbiis fexpartitus,
laciniis ovato oblongis, patentibus; perfiftens.
STAMINA. Filamenta fex, breviffima, capillaria.
Antherae oblongfe, petalis breviores.
F I S T I L L U M . Germen iufenim, turbinatnm. Stylus
filiformis, longitudine ftaminum. Stigma
obtuiiufculum.
PEKICARPIUM. Capfula oblongiufcula, baii anguftior,
coronata corolla periiftente, trilocularis,
trivalvis.
SEMINA plurima, fubrotunda.
S P E C I F I C
Hypoxis fcapo unifloro; foliis fub-linearibus,
. laxis, ftriatis; petalis bafi maculatis.
CHARACTER.
EMPALEMENT. Hulk of two valves.
BLOSSOM one petal, fuperior; border of fix divifions,
fegments oblong-egg-fliaped, and
fpreading; permanent.
CHIVES. Six very ihort hair-like threads. Tips
oblong, fliorter than the petals.
TOINTAL. Seed-bud beneath, turban-fliape.
Shaft thread-iliaped, the length of the
chives. Summit bluntlfli.
SEED-VESSEL. Capfule rather oblong, fmaller at
the baie, crowned by the permanent blolfom,
three cells, three valves.
SEEDS many, roundiih.
CHARACTER.
Hj'poxis with but one bloiTom on the flowerilem;
leaves nearly linear, flexible, and
fcored; the petals fpotted at the bafe.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. The Chives and Pointal, cleared from the Bloflbm.
2. A Chive.
3. The Pointal.
T H O U G H we have little doubt in referring this plant to the title under which we have figured it, and
by which it has been long known to moft botanifts, at leaft by name; yet have we great ones, whether
it ought in any wife tb be confidered as fuch. Thunberg, perhaps the only batanift, who has feen it in
flower, thought fo, and placed it to a genus he had named Fabricia. Certainly no one charafter of
the genus Hypoxis, can be traced in the flower. The hulk is of one valve, the petals not even clofe
at the bafe, the threads flat, the fummits three, and halbert-fliaped, the fliaft pillar-fliape and fhort, &c.
But, as upon our old plea, we do not choofe to change generic names when long eftabliflied, this
plant, for us, muft ftill remain an Hypoxis; tho' it could not now be placed, at any rate, to Fabricia,
as that title is given to a family of plants, natives of New Holland. The fliar-flowered Hypoxis is a
native of the Cape of Good Hope, is rather a tender bulb, and does not often flower. It was according
to the Kew Catalogue firft introduced to the Royal Gardens bv Mr. F. Maflbn, in the year 1788; but
as the time of flowering is not mentioned, we fuppofe it did not flower there. The root fliould, like
other Cape bulbs, be removed from the pot after flowering, and replanted in Ofilober. It propagates
itfelf pretty freely by offsets, if planted in light fandy peat, mixed with a little loam. The drawing
was made in June, this prefent year, at the Hammerfmith nurfery.
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