_Cor._ 6-petala. _Nectarium_ turbinatum, obliquum reflexum. _Caps._ infera 1-locularis, 3-valvis, fenestrata.
EPIDENDRUM _ciliare_ foliis oblongis aveniis, nectarii labio tripartito ciliato: intermedia lineari, cauli bifolio. _Linn. Syst. Vegetab. ed. 14._ _Murr. p. 818._ _Jacq. Amer. pict. p. 110. t. 209._
Of this parasitical tribe the number of species described in the third edition of the _Sp. Pl. Linn. 1764_, amounts to thirty; in Gmelin's thirteenth edition of the _Syst. Nat. Linn. 1791_, no less than seventy-five are enumerated, which is a vast accession in so short a period; most of these are natives of hot climates, and on that account require a stove heat in this country; from their nature also they require a situation not to be exactly imitated, they are therefore to be regarded as plants very difficult of culture, and we are not to be surprised that three species only are enumerated in the _Hort. Kew._--but, since the publication of that work, many others have been added to the royal collection, and this among the rest.
The rare and singular species here represented, a native of the warmer parts of America, and the West-Indies, flowered with Mr. Whitley, Nurseryman, Old-Brompton, in Feb. 1799, and at irregular periods before that time; he informs me that it is not constant as to the time of its blowing, and that though the plant flowers with him, it never assumes a fine healthy green appearance, he propagates it by dividing its limbs or branches, which often put forth small roots; the plant grows in a pot, in a mixture of loam and peat or bog-earth, and is kept constantly plunged in the tan-pit of the stove.
Sisyrinchium Gramineum. Grass-Leaved Sisyrinchium.
_Spatha_ 2-phylla. _Petala_ 6-plana. _Caps._ 3-locularis infera 3-valvis.
SISYRINCHIUM _gramineum_ caule ancipiti lato, germinibus glabris.
SISYRINCHIUM _angustifolium_ foliis lineari-gladiolatis, pedunculis longioribus. _Mill. Dict._
SISYRINCHIUM _cæruleum_ parvum, gladiato caule, virginianum. _Pluk. alm. 348. t. 61. f. 1._
BERMUDIANA graminea, flore minore cæruleo. _Dill. Elth. 49. t. 41. f. 49._
GLADIOLUS cæruleus hexapetalus caule etiam gladiato. _Banist. virg. 1926._
In a former Number of this Work, we gave a figure of the large variety of _Sisyrinch. Bermud._ of _Linn._ regarding it as a distinct species, and naming it _iridioides_, conformably to Dillenius's specific description; we regret now that we did not continue to it the name of _Bermudiana_ (it being the true Bermudas plant) and which cannot with propriety be applied to the present species, a native of Virginia, far more diminutive, with flowers much smaller, of a paler blue colour, a much hardier plant also, and of more ready growth; it is indeed a truly hardy perennial, adapted to the open border, in which it will grow readily, and produce abundance of flowering stems in June and July; the flowers expand to the sun, and are followed by numerous seed-vessels which ripen their seeds, by which the plant may be increased, or by parting its roots in the autumn. Its stalk affords an excellent example of the _caulis anceps_. We readily embrace the opportunity here afforded us of correcting an error in regard to the hardiness of the _Sisyrinch. iridioides_, which we were led into partly by Miller's account, and partly from observing the plant to survive a mild winter in the open ground; we have since found that it is a tender plant, and to be ranked with those of the greenhouse; an additional proof of its being a distinct species from the one here figured, which has long[7] been cultivated in our gardens.