Page:Paradisus Londinensis 1(2).djvu/402

  from the bottom. Leaves 5 in our plant, 2 of those were decayed about the middle, the other 3 quite fresh having already shot to some inches in length in the moss the root was packed in, sessile, spreading in every direction, linear-lanceolate, scarcely a quarter of an inch with in the broadest part, very entire, obtuse, smooth, hollow, the under surface slightly furrowed, all decayed by the month of August. Flowers from 4 to 7 in a fasciculus, succeeding each other slowly, erect, smelling agreeably. Peduncle not so long as the leaves, rather narrower and paler, erect, cylindrical, finely striated, quite smooth, fistular at least by the time the fruit ripens. Outer Bractes greenish brown and not withered when the first flower expanded, spreading, obtuse, interior one whitish and very narrow. Pedicel of the first flower as long as the corolla, the others gradually shorter, slender, cylindrical, smooth. Corolla rather more than an inch long. Tube dull green with a tinge of blue, and 6 deeper lines running down from the middle of each division of the limb, somewhat contracted at the top so as to be rather pitcher-shaped than funnel-shaped, smooth on both surfaces; Limb violet-blue, divided to the base; divisions recurved, almost elliptical, very entire, obtuse, the three outer ones narrower and at the top projecting internally in a little claw by which they are held together before they are expanded; withering upon the torus without falling. Filaments 6, inserted in the orifice of the tube, decurrent, yellowish green with white edges, erect, quite smooth; those 3 which are opposite to the inner divisions of the limb wedge-shaped and bearing anthers; the other 3 considerably larger, elliptic-wedge-shaped, hollow, barren. Anthers yellow with paler edges, 3 lines long, inserted at the base where they are 2-fid, quite erect, broad-linear, deeply emarginated at the top, 2-locular, 4-valved, splitting rather towards the inside. Pollen deep yellow. Torus or receptacle yellow, projecting into 3 melliferous lobes to which the corolla adheres. Pericarpium before impregnation yellowish green, not so long as the tube, 3-angular with rudiments of 3 intermediate angles, 3-locular, smooth. Style yellowish green, reaching to about the bottom of the anthers, erect, triangular, smooth. Stigma yellow, large in proportion to the style, somewhat funnel-shaped, divided into 3 thick recurved wedge-shaped lobes furrowed on their upper side. Seeds from 5 to 7 in each cell, inserted on the internal margin of the dissepiments in a double row: in our plant only two of them ripened imperfectly and were black, fully a line long, 3-angular with a large chalaza at the bottom.

________ REFERENCES TO THE PLATE.

1. The Corolla spread open with the Stamina, one of the barren ones having a rudiment of an Anther at the top. 2. Pistillum. 3. Lower half of the Pericarpium magnified, shewing the melliferous receptacle. 4. A Seed magnified.