Curtis Botanical - Plate 256 - Ixia longiflora / Long-flower'd Ixia

Original hand-colored antique botanical print from Curtis's Botanical Magazine - Plate 256, Ixia longiflora (Long-flower'd Ixia).

• Plate: 256
• Latin name: Ixia longiflora
• Common name: Long-flower'd Ixia
• Native region: Cape of Good Hope
• Flowering: April to June
• Linnaean class / order: Triandria / Monogynia
• Publication: Mar. 1, 1794
• Medium: Original hand-colored engraving (physical print, not a reproduction)

Original Curtis text
Transcribed from the plate's accompanying description page:

[ 256 ]

IXIA LONGIFLORA. LONG-FLOWER'D IXIA.

. . .

Class and Order.
TRIANDRIA MONOGYNIA.

Generic Character.
Cor. 6-partita, campanulata, regularis. Stigmata 3.

Specific Character and Synonyms.
IXIA longiflora foliis ensiformibus linearibus striatis, tubo filiformi longissimo. Ait. Kew. v. 4. p. 58. GLADIOLUS longiflorus caule tereti, tubo longissimo, spathis foliiesque linearibus glabris. Linn. Suppl. p. 96. Gmel. Syst. Vegetab. ed. 14. Murr. p. 86. We are not acquainted with a tribe of plants which stand more in need of elucidation than those of this genus; of the vast numbers imported from the Cape within these few years, where they are chiefly natives, and that for the most part by way of Holland, few comparatively are well ascertained; some of them appear subject to great variation, both in the size and colour of their blossoms (whether in their wild state they are thus inconstant, or whether there are feminal varieties raised by the persevering industry of the Dutch Florists, we have not yet had it in our power satisfactorily to ascertain); others like the present one have their characters strongly marked, and less variable; in general they are plants of easy culture, requiring chiefly to be protected from the effects of frost, the least degree of which is presently fatal to most of them. The treatment recommended for the Ixia flexuosa is applicable to this and the other Cape species. According to the Hort. Kew. this species was introduced by Mr. Masson in the year 1774. It flowers from April to June.

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This print comes from our Curtis archive (via the Royal Horticultural Society and Wheldon & Wesley). Sold as an original historic plate - please review photos for condition.