ART. X. On the Genus CRINUM. By JOHN BELLENDEN KER, Esq. PROPOSING to review in succession the genera which we have enumerated in the article on AMARYLLIS (Art. XIII. of No. IV. in the Second Volume of this Journal), as composing the second section of Jussieu's NARCISSI; to avoid repetition, we shall refer throughout our reviews to that place, for the ordinal and sectional relations of all the genera. The generic and specific attributes will form alone the subject of the future articles. The vegetable group included under CRINUM consists of species of peculiar stateliness, and of a stature in proportion more generally gigantic than in any other with a tunicated bulb. We are not aware of a corolla within the genus, much below the height of half a foot when fully extended. The species are remarkable for the apparent sameness of configuration which pervades the whole of them; and it is no slender evidence of the botanical acuteness of the late Dr. Roxburgh, that he has seized and embodied in description the faint and wavering marks which distinguish essentially likenesses so near. Nor should it be forgot, that to his assiduity, while superintending the public garden at Calcutta, we owe the discovery of nearly two parts in three of those now recorded. It has been intended by some to transfer the section of AMARYLLIS, with a multifarous foliage and bulbispermous capsule, to CRINUM. In our opinion, this would be to complicate the character of the latter, without simplifying that of the former; and to reject the most ready technical characteristic which marks the boundary between them, for no corresponding advantage. Why should not the genera connect where they now do, as well as where they would then ? A bulbispermous capsule is not peculiar to the multifarious leaved long-tubed division; it eccurs in that distinguished by a bifarious foliage, and a nearly tubeless flower; and is possibly in neither a constant character. The type of the genus, as now restricted by definition, has not been observed to range beyond the tropical or nearly tropical regions. The East Indies has the largest proportion of species. None have been noticed at the Cape of Good Hope or the neighbouring parts, where, however, the liliaceous type is more general and diversified than in any other part of the globe. AMARYLLIS longifolia seems the closest transitionspecies in that quarter. The colour of the flowers is confined to white and various modifications of red. The bulb is sometimes elongated cylindrically, so as to have the appearance of a stem; nearly as it is in the common leek, but on a larger scale. A characteristic we have never observed in AMARYLLIS. GENUS. CRINUM. Umbella pluri-numerosiflora, bracteis numero pedunculorum distincta, longior spatha bivalvi. Corolla supera, erecta, tubuloso-sexfida; tubus strictus, pluriès longior germine, non ampliatus in faucem; limbus sexpartitus subæqualis, regularis, radiatus. Filamenta in summo tubo, uno versu inclinata v. divergentia sexfariam, antheræ lineares, vibratæ. Stylus inclinatus, exsertus tubo, modò æqualis flori: stigma simplex obtusum, rariùs obsoletè trina: germen 3-loculare, polyspermum, ovulis in loculamento singulo biseriatis. Capsula membranosa, tenuis vel coriaceo-crassa, oblato-sphærica, trilocularis, sæpè loculo uno vel et altero abortivis: semina numerosa, horizontalia, cumulata, margini interno septi utrinque annexa, anguloso-compressa, submarginata, vel sæpiùs pauca tuberoso-laxata, vel unicum: olbumen siccocarnosum durum, vel sæpiùs ad instar tuberis tumifactum mollius atque succosius. Genus transeuns in AMARYLLIDEM ad ejusdem species longè tubulosas cum foliis multifariis, à quibus dignoscitur sold regularitate limbi rotati. HEMANTHO accedit ad ejusdem multiflorum. Bulbus sæpè porraceus vel productus in collum concentricè foliosum caudiciforme ferè ac in ALLIO Porro. Folia multifaria, latè vel angustè lorata, canaliculata vel planiora. Flores candicantes aut varie purpurascentes; semipedales ad pedales et ultra. I. Umbella sessili vel subsessili. 1. americanum.C. foliis striatis; umbella sessili pauci-pluriflora : Lilio-Asphodelus americanus sempervirens minor albus. Folia lato-lorata, lanceolata. Flores albi: limbo infernè Patria: America Meridionalis. 2. crubescens. C. foliis lanceolato-loratis, cartilagineo-denticulatis; umbella subsessili pluriflora; tubo longiore limbo; staminibus sexfariis stylo parùm brevioribus. Crinum erubescens. Hort. Kew. 1. 413. ed. 2. 2. 221. Willd. sp. pl. 2. 46. hort. schoenb. 4. t. 30. Curtis's magaz. 1232. Jacq. Redouté liliac. 27. Crinum foliis carinatis. Miller ic. 73. t. 110. Bulbus ovatus, magnitudine pugni. Folia lanceolato-lorata, Um canaliculata supernè plana, 3-pedalia, latitudine biunci- Patria: America Meridionalis. OBE. Vix hujus loci CRINUM erubescens: nov. gen. et spec. orb. nov. a Kunth? Huic bulbus squamosus, folia integerrima, flores 10-pollicares, tubo 7-pollicari, laciniis 24 pollices longis. Species ex sicco descripta, ulteriùs in vivo recognoscenda ut sortiatur locus. Crescit propè Turbaco et los Volcanitos in humidis Regni Novi Granatensis. 3. Commelini. C. corollarum apicibus introrsùm uncinatis; foliis linearibus canaliculatis, scapo subquadrifloro. Jacquin hort. schoenb. 2. 40. t. 202. Bulbus magnitudine juglandis, ovatus, fuscus, stoloniferus. Folia plura, sublinearia ad oras integerrima, plùs minùs pedalia, canaliculata, tereti-concava, suprà plana, apice cartilagineo obtusula, erectiuscula, 8 lineas lata. Scapus brevior foliis, compressus, calamum crassus, purpurascens. Spatha rubescens, ferè triuncialis. Flores sessiles, sæpiùs tres, suaveolentes, erecti, albi. Corollæ tubus cylindricus, a quatuor ad sex uncias longus: lacinia limbi lineari-lanceolatæ, acutæ, planæ, tubo duplo breviores, ad apicem rubellæ, dorso fasciam longitudinalem mediam purpuream gerentes, primò patentes, indè reflexæ. Filamenta uno versiù inclinata purpurea : antheræ flave. Stylus purpureus brevior vel longior staminibus. Jacquin. Patria: America Meridionalis. 4. defixum. C. bulbo oblongo-globoso rhizomate fusiformi, humo altè demisso; foliis rigentèr erectis, angustè loratis, canaliculatis, longè acuminatis, margine glabro; umbella subsessili, multiflora, capsulis pedunculatis; stylo æquali staminibus. Crinum asiaticum. Roxburgh corom. inedit. Museo Banks. cum tab. pict. Belutta-pola-taly. Rheede hort. malab. 11. 75. t. 38. Rudb. elys. 2. t. 90; (figura Rheedii.) Synonymon alias minùs rectè asiatico datum. Bulbus non in collum v. caudicem porraceum productus, rhizomate stolonifero deorsum perpendiculari-fusiformi, humi altè defixo. Folia multifaria, involuta, semicylindraceo-concava, ecarinata, longitudine unius vel duorum pedum, latitudine partium unciæ v. parùm ultrà. Scapus sæpiùs brevior foliis, frequentiùs coloratus. Umbella 6-12-fora. Flores magni, albi, noctu oderi: tubus cylindricus, longitudine 4-6-unciali, è parte solari coloratus, ex alterâ pallidè virens : lacinia linearilanceolatæ, margine subundulatæ, universæ apice recurvo-appendiculatæ. Filamenta æqualiter incurvopatentia, dimidio superiori colorata: anth. incumbentes. Stylus inclinatus: stigma simplex. Capsula de germine subsessili longiùs pedunculata, membranosa, subglobosa, loculis mono-dispermis: semina bulbosa, rugosa. Ex angl. Roxb. Patria: India; in paludosis vel limosis ad fluviorum ripas. 5. ensifolium. C. bulbo ovato; foliis sparsis rectis uniformibus. Nondùm floridum in horto botanico Calcutta. Defixo proximum, at differt formâ bulbi, foliis minùs canaliculatis, longinquiùs attenuatis, cum acumine plurimùm argutiori atque longiore. Roxburgh corom. inedit. Musæo Banks. Patria: Pegu. 6. amoenum. C. bulbo sphærico; foliis lorato-attenuatis margine subglabro; umbella pauci-(6)-flora, sessili, laciniis lineari-lanceolatis tubo subæqualibus. Crinum amoenum. Roxburgh MSS. in the Library of the Gocinda. Incolis. Species minor elegans. Bulbus mediæ magnitudinis circumferentia 8-12-unciarum, penè globosus, neque porraceocaudescens v. in stipitem continuatus. Folia 6-12, multifaria, recta, plus minus canaliculata præcipuè versùs basin, margine obsoletiùs scabrata, 1-2-pedalia latitudine sesquiunciali. Scapus lateralis, solitarius, pedalis, teres. Umbellæ 4-8-flore, bracteatæ. Flores magni, albi, sessiles : tubus 3-4-uncialis, trigonus: lacinia lineari-lanceolatæ, acutæ. Filamenta assurgenter inclinata, subæquantia limbum, purpurascentia: anth. |