Tab. 6924. 



LAPEYROUSIA geandiflora. 



Native of East Tropical Africa. 



Nat. Ord. Ibidem. — Tribe Ixie.e. 

 Genus Lapeyeousia, Poarr.; (Bentk. et HooJc.f. Gen. PI. vol. iii. p. 705.) 



Lapeyeousia (Anomatheca) grand/flora ; cormo parvo globoso tunicis fibrosis, 

 foliis 6-8 distichis subbusalibus confertis linearibus glabris membranaci'is, 

 pedunculo elongato simplici vel furcato folio unico reducto instructo, spicia 

 4-10-floris laxis subsecundis, spatbse valvis lanceolatis membranaceo-berb.Hvis, 

 perianthii tubo elongato cylindrico apice infundibulari, segmentis splendide 

 rubris oblcngis vel oblongo-lanceolatis 3 superioribus ascendentibus 3 in/'evi- 

 oribus brevioribus deflexis basi rubro saturatiovi maculatis, staminibus erectis 

 elongatis, stylo staminibus eminente ramis 6 divaiicatis stigmatosis, i'ructu 

 parvo globoso. 



Lapeyrousia grandiflora, Baker in Juurn. Bot. 1876, p. 337 ; Journ Linn. Soc. 

 vol. xvi. p. 154. 



The present plant is a native of the Zambesi country, 

 "where it was discovered by Sir John Kirk, whilst travelling 

 with Dr. Livingstone in 1858. It has since been sent homo 

 in a dried state by Dr. Meller and Mr. John Buchanan, 

 and in 1883 we received living corms from Mrs. Monteiro. 

 It is a near ally of the well-known Anomatheca cruenta of 

 Natal, but the flowers are much larger. Mr. Bentham has 

 now reduced Ker's genus Anomatheca to Lapeyrousia, and 

 here again we get a large characteristically Cape genus, 

 represented in Angola and the mountains of Tropical Africa 

 by a few distinct specific types. Our drawing was made 

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



Desce. Conn small, globose; outer tunics formed of 

 fine brown nearly parallel fibres. Produced leaves six or 

 eight in a distichous nearly basal rosette, linear, mem- 

 branous, green, glabrous, half a foot or a foot long. 

 Peduncle, including the inflorescence, a foot long, simple or 

 forked, bearing only a single reduced leaf. Spikes lax, 

 subsecund, four- to ten-flowered ; spathe-valves lanceolate, 

 unequal, between membranous and herbaceous. Perianth - 

 tube cylindrical, with a short funnel-shaped apex, an inch 



MAECH 1st, 1887. 



