Page:Appendix to the first twenty-three volumes of Edwards's Botanical Register.djvu/31

 Rh appearance. and probably has also bulbs. The Byblis 92 is a most beautiful plant, erect, covered with very singular glands, a foot and half high, with filiform leaves ten or eleven inches long, and purple flowers more than an inch and half in diameter. All of these are well worthy cultivation, but it will perhaps be difficult to preserve them.

These Droseraceous plants appear likely to be in some cases of commercial value as dyer's plants. Every part of D. gigantea stains paper of a brilliant deep purple; and when fragments are treated with ammonia they yield a clear yellow. The bulbs of D. erythrorhiza and stolonifera possess the same property; in these there is a deep scarlet powder secreted by the scales of the bulbs, which is instantly dissolved in ammonia, forming at first an orange-coloured fluid of great richness, but it soon changes to the rich purple above mentioned, which is more like the colour obtained from Archil than any thing else to which I can compare it. Possibly these bulbs are what Dr. Milligan speaks of under the name of "boom," which he says "are scarlet roots, not unlike in shape and size to tulip roots. They roast them in the ashes, and then pound them between two flat stones, rubbing the latter with a ball of earth to prevent the root adhering to it; when thus prepared they are mucilaginous and of a glossy black colour; they may be considered the bread of the natives who live near the coast." If so they may be easily enough obtained for the purpose of exportation, and may assist the poorer settlers in turning to account the produce of their land.



The forms of this order found in the Colony are, with the exception of a Plttosporum of which I have seen fragments, almost peculiar to the West Coast. Both Sollya heterophylla and S. linearis are found; the latter is a new species, with very narrow undivided leaves, and flowers of the brightest blue; it has recently been introduced by Mr.

 (92) gigantea; glanduloso-pubescens, caule erecto flexuoso (sesquipedali), foliis longissimls filiformibus, pedunculis solitariis unifloris axillaribus foliis brevioribus, sepalis lineari-lanceolatis 3-6-nerviis quam petala serrulata duplò brevioribus, stigmate slmplici. 