Imagens da página
PDF
ePub
[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed]
[merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]
[graphic][subsumed][ocr errors]

Iridea.

GLADIOLUS ALATUS.

SWORD-LILY.

Class III. TRIANDRIA. Order I.

MONOGYNIA.

Gen. Char. Spatha, two-valved, grassy. Corolla, six-parted and garping. Stamens, three, rising upward. Stigma, trifid, recurved, Capsule, oblong, three-sided. Seeds, winged.

Spe. Char. Filaments, distinct. Anthers, bursting. Capsule, threecelled, three-valved.

The root is tuberous, hard, internally white, externally brown, and sends off innumerable quantities of small threed-like fibres; the stalks rise from the root, and is surrounded at its base with three or five, long, pointed, narrow, sword-like leaves; the leaves are equitant, or alternately embrace each other, so as to enclose their edges; the calyx and corolla are superior, confounded, their divisions either partially cohering, or entirely separate, sometimes irregular, the three petals being very short; the stamens are three, and rise from the base of the sepals; the filaments are distinct or cornate, the anthers bursting externaly, lengthwise, fixed by their base, two-celled; ovarium, three-celled; cells many-seeded; style, one; stigma, five, often petaloid, sometimes two-lipped; the capsule is three-celled, and three-valved, with a loculicidal dehiscence; the seeds are attached to the inner angle of the cell, and sometimes to a central column, which afterwards becomes loose.

The sword-lily, (by some called the corn-flag) belongs to a genus of tuberous plants, and is one of the finest ornaments of the flower garden. The Asiatic and European species, have long been

« AnteriorContinuar »