Bobartia
(named after Jacob Bobart, Professor of Botany at Oxford in the seventeenth century). ORD. Irideae. A small genus of greenhouse or hardy bulbous plants, closely allied to Sisyrinchium. The species in cultivation are very pretty hardy plants, but require protection from severe frosts and excessive rains. They thrive best in a warm, light soil, and make pretty plants for rockwork. Propagated by separating the offsets during autumn. This genus has been much misunderstood. Among the plants which have been referred to it are some which now find places in the genera Aristea, Homeria, Marica, Moraea, Sisyrinchium, &c., &c.
B. aurantiaca. See Homeria aurantiaca.
B. gladiata (sword-shaped). fl. yellow, thinly sprinkled with purple dots near the centre, handsome, nearly 2in. across. l. linear, ensiform, narrow, slightly glaucous, 1ft. or more in length. 1817. SYN. Marica gladiata. (B. R. 229.) B. spathacea (Rush-like). l. rush-like, several feet in length; flower-stem as long as leaves, bearing near extremity a cluster of pale yellow flowers, with narrow segments. Each flower lasts but one day; as a good many, however, are developed in each spathe, there is a succession which lasts some time. 1832. SYN. Xyris altissima. (L. B. C. 1900.)