Tar. 0019. 

 GLADIOLUS VTatsonioides. 

 Xat.ive of Mount Kilimanjaro. 



Nat. Ord. Iride t. — Tribe Glapiolf.t:. 

 Genus Gladiolus, Linn.; (Bcnth. et Hook. f. Gen. PL vol. iii. p. 709.) 



Gladiolus Wat*onoide$; foliia linearibua finnm glabra baaalibaa prodactia pedali- 

 lms vil aaaqnipedalibaa, eaole elongate foliis paucia reductia inat'ruoto, Boribria 

 HO in apicam laxam anilateralem diapoaitia, apathte ralria lanoeolatia foliaceia 

 magnis, periantbio Bplendide rubra tubo eorrato aagaate iofuDdibolari, aeg- 

 niciitis oblongia tetttia aaboonformiboa tubo diattnete brerioriboa, ataminiboa 

 arcoatia periantbio brerioribua, atyli ramia atigtnateaia magna patolia, capaalaa 

 valvis oblongis, aeminiboa late alatia, 



(J. Watsonioides. Baker in Journ. Linn. Soc. vol. xxi. p. 406. 



This is one of the most interesting of the petal oid mono- 

 cotyledons which have been discovered daring the recent 

 exploration of the regions round Mount Kilimanjaro by 

 Messrs. Thomson and Johnston. In botanical characters 

 it is nearly allied to well-known Cape species, Gladiolus 

 Watson his of Thimberg (figured Bot. Mag. tab. 450), but 

 it is quite different in leaf and stature. From Mr. Johnston's 

 notes it appears to begin at a height of 8500 feet above 

 sea-level in ascending the mountain, and to continue in 

 considerable plenty up to 11,000 feet; and he collected at 

 a height of 13,000 feet a dwarfed form with smaller flowers 

 than in the type and narrow leaves with convolute edges. 

 The seeds (by means of which it was brought into cultiva- 

 tion) have a very broad wing. Our drawing was made 

 from a plant that flowered at Kew in June, 1886. 



Desce. Produced basal leaves about four, linear, erect, 

 firm in texture, glabrous, strongly ribbed, a foot or a foot 

 and a half long. Stem erect, terete, two or three feet long, 

 bearing about a couple of much-reduced leaves below the 

 inflorescence. Flowers four to ten in a very lax unilateral 

 spike; spathe-valves curved, foliaceous, lanceolate, green 

 margined with red, the outer valve larger than the inner. 

 in the lower flowers two inches or more long. Perianth 



FEB. 1st, 1887. 



