Witsenia
(named after Nicholas Witsen, a Dutch patron of botany). ORD. Irideae. A monotypic genus. The species is an ornamental, greenhouse shrub. It thrives in sandy peat, and may be increased by divisions, or by seeds. W. corymbosa (corymbose).* fl. one (or two?) to a spathe, subsessile; perianth purplish-blue, the tube elongated, cylindrical; lobes erect, connivent, the outer ones rather thick, tomentose at back, the inner ones shorter; stamens affixed to the throat, shorter than the perianth; spathes usually twin in the axils of the upper bracts. June. l. erect, ensiform, equitant, rather rigid; upper ones smaller, clustered. Stem tall, branched, compressed, acutely angled. South Africa, 1803. (B. 125; B. R. 5; F. d. S. 72; P. M. B. viii., p. 221.)