Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 34 (1896).djvu/530

 494 SISYRINCHIUM CALIFORNIOUM DRYAND. and smiling when anything was done for him. He was evidently sinking all the afternoon and evening, but was as evidently free from any pain. Between nine and ten in the evening Mr. Freeman was called away for a little, and the hospital attendant on his return reported a change. As Mr. Freeman entered the room Henry turned his head towards him, and then lay quietly back, and passed away without a tremor or movement of any kind. " The funeral took place at Kandy on the morning of Sunday, October 18th, and was attended by two hundred of the European community and by a great number of natives, both head-men and Garden employes. Henry's old servant, Bob Appu, never left the back of the hearse throughout the route from Peradeniya ; and on the previous day my nephew writes that he had about 400 appli- cations from natives (old servants, village head-men, &c.) to see ' the old master.' The burial took place in the Mahaiyawa Cemetery, Henry's body being laid not far from the resting-place of his pre- decessor, Dr. Thwaites." [The portrait here reproduced was taken by Messrs. Cameron during Dr. Trimen's visit to England in 1887.] James Britten. SISYRINCHIUM CALIFOENICUM Drvtand. By a. B. Rendle, M.A., F.L.S. (Plate 364.) The plants from which the following description was made were found last June, by the Rev. E. S. Marshall, in marshy, rushy meadow-land, a mile or more north of Rosslare station, near Wexford, Ireland, as already indicated in this Journal {antea, p. 366) :— Plants 6-12 in. high, glabrous, acaulescent, and csespitose in habit. Rhizome ascending, tapering, reaching If in. in length, with a diameter of 2 lines beneath the shoot, bearing numerous brown fibrous roots about f line in diameter, and ending in the erect flowering shoot. Leaves generally six in number, distichous, consisting of a flattened sheathing base with a narrow scarious transparent margin enclosing the younger leaves and the peduncle, and passing gradually into a linear flattened blade tapering towards a rather blunt apex. Length from 3^-8^ in., according to the size of the plant, and from lf-2 lines in greatest width. Blade traversed by 5-6 parallel veins. Peduncles, two of which are generally present, overtopping the leaves (the largest measured 9 in. below the spathe), leafless, compressed, and broadly winged, width 1 to 2 lines. Bracts distichous and sheathing ; the two outermost, or spathes, completely enclosing the rest, and foliaceous in texture. Outer spathe erect, tapering gradually upwards to a subacute apex from a broad flattened sheathing base, the margins of which are connate for about one-fourth of the length of the