Tab. 4167, 4168 

 STRELITZIA augusta. 



Great White Strelitzia. 



Nat. Ord. Musace*:.— Pentandria Monogynia. 



Gen. Char. STRELITZIA, Banks et Ait.—Perigonii epigyni foliola 

 exteriora subaequalia, anticum carinatum; interiora lateralia exterioribus 

 subconformia, inter se connata, acuminata, latere versus medium auriculata, 

 genitalia amplectentia, posticum nanum concavum. Stamina 5, sexto 

 postico abortiente. Ovarium inferum, triloculare. Ovula in loculorum 

 angulo centrali plurima, biseriata, horizontalia, anatropa. Stylus filiformis; 

 stigma tripartitum, laciniis linearibus. Capsula trilocularis, loculicido-tri- 

 valvis. Semina plurima, subglobosa, /wmctt/o brevi, in arillum stupposum 

 fatiscente affixa, testa fuliginea, laevi. Embryo orthotropus, linearis, in 

 axi albuminis farinaceo-cornei, extremitate radiculari umbilicum spectante, 

 centripeta. — Herbse Capenses, foliis radicalibus maximis, distichis, longe 

 petiolatis, peliolis cdnaliculatis, basi dilatatis, vaginantibus ; scapo radicali 

 vaginis velato,Jloribus e spatha terminali obliqua erectis. Endl. 



Strelitzia augusta; caudice elongato, foliis longe petiolatis oblongis acu- 

 tis basi cordatis parallelim nervosis basi cordatis, scapo brevissimo. 



Strelitzia augusta. ** Thunb. Prodr. p. 45. Fl. Cap. p. 216. Willd. 

 Sp. PI. v.l.p. 1190. Ait. ffort. Kew. ed. 2. p. 55. Roem. et Sch. 

 Syst. Veget. v. 5. p. 594. Spreng. Syst. Veget. v.l.p. 833. 



A native of Southern Africa, with the other species of 

 Strelitzia. Anteniqua Land, about the neighbourhood of the 

 Pisang River, is the station given for it by Thunberg. 

 According to the Hortus Kewensis, it was introduced to 

 Europe in 1791 by Mr. Francis Masson, then Botanical Col- 

 lector for the Royal Gardens. It is still a rare plant m our 

 collections ; not indeed that it is difficult of increase, for it 

 sends out offsets frequently, but it requires the heat of a 

 stove, and more space than cultivators can generally atiord to 

 give it. Thunberp: describes the native caudex or trunk, as 

 eighteen feet long ; and the leaves and petioles from the 

 summit of that probably add as many more feet to it. In 

 the Royal Gardens of Kew, it has, including the leaves, 

 attained a height of twenty-three feet. The flowering speci- 

 men, however, from which our present drawing is made, H 



VOL. I. 



