The petals were like silk, their scent strong and sweet.
Flower after fall of petals, magnified.
The flowers are mostly heavy and drooping, petals brightly coloured, the edges being curiously notched and waved.
The flowers, which are solitary, or rarely in pairs, at the end of slender axillary flower-stalks, are very irregular in form, with five sepals prolonged at the base, and five petals, the lowest one larger than the others and with a spur, in which collects the honey secreted by the spurs of the two adjoining stamens.
The sepals are generally organs for the protection of the flower-bud; the petals, for attracting insects by their conspicuous form and color; the foliage-leaves, for the assimilation of carbon dioxide and other associated functions.