Page:Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, Volume 10.djvu/25



called Brodiæa. foliolis tribus, petaloideis, erectis, oblongis, uniformibus, indivisis, dilutè flevescentibus, limbo duplò brevioribus, cum staminibus alternantibus. Filimenta tria, brevissima, fauce, inter coronæ foliola, inserta. Antheræ verticales, fulvæ, oblongæ, coronâ parùm breviores, bilobæ, lobis extùs longitudinalitèr dehiscentibus, haud absolutè bilocularibus. Germen pedicellatum, elliptico-trigonum, triloculare, seminibus columellæ insertis. Stylus cylindraceus, longitudine ferè staminum. Stigma trigonum, trilobum.

Transactions of the Linnean Society of London/Volume 10/Characters of a new Liliaceous Genus called Brodiaea Radix et herba ferè prioris. Umbella minor, condensata, bracteis majoribus, latis, pedicellos superantibus. Flores cyanei, coronâ dilutiore, nec flavescente, foliolis semibifidis, acutis antheras longè superantibus, at limbo duplò, ut in priore, brevioribus. Stamina parùm e fauce prominentia inter coronæ foliola.

The three petal-like leaves, which crown the tube of the corolla in this genus, are, without doubt, analogous to the cup in Narcissus, the membranous expansion attached to the base of the stamens in Pancratium, and still more precisely to what Jussieu calls squamulæ, and Linnæus nectarium in Tulbaghia. I see no more reason to reckon them barren filaments in one case than in the others; though, if my Brodiæa grandiflora were the only liliaceous plant furnished with them, they might, with great appearance of probability, be taken for such. But Brodiæa congesta guards us against this error, and approaches a step nearer to Pancratium and Tulbaghia. These three genera indeed bear the same relationship to the other liliaceæ, that Gnidia, Struthiola and Quisqualis do to Daphne and the rest of its natural order.