Tas, 5995. 
LITANTHUS pvusitwvs. 
Native of South Africa. 
Nat. Ord. Lin1acez.—Tribe ALLIEA. 
Genus Liranraus, Harv. ; (Harv. Gen, S. Afric. Plants, ed. 2, p. 399). 
Litanraus pusillus ; perpusillus, bulbo spherico albo, foliis 2-nis 2—4~polli- 
caribus filiformibus obtusis superne concavis dorso convexis, basi vagi- 
hatis, vaginis membranaceis, scapis a bulbis aphyllis egredientibus foliis 
brevioribus capillaceis 1-2-floris, bracteis 2-nis minutis oblongis pel- 
tatis membranaceo-marginatis, floribus nutantibus albidis, pedicello 
curvo, perianthio cylindraceo-campanulato breviter 6-loho deciduo lobis 
Totundatis, antheris inclusis connectivo apice producto 2-dentato, ovario 
Sessili, stylo simplici, stigmate truncato, capsula subglobosa. 
Litanravs pusillus, Harv. in Hook. Lond. Journ. Bot. (1844) vol. iii. 
Pp. 314, t.9. Gen. S. Afric. Plants, ed. 2, p. 899. 
_ Perhaps the smallest known Liliaceous plant, with leaves 
like green threads and pearly-white nodding flowers, always 
arising from leafless bulbs, whence probably the bulbs bear 
leaves and flowers in alternate years. It was discovered in 
1843, by Zeyher, amongst rushes in thickets, near the 
4Zwartkops river, Uitenhage; and later in Caffraria by H. 
owker and Mrs. Barber. Our specimens were received, in 
1870, from Mr. Harry Bolus, an excellent South African 
botanist ; they were planted in light soil and placed in a 
warm house, where they flowered freely in August of the 
present year. 
Drscr. Bulb the size of a hazel-nut, white, coats very fleshy, 
with a few slender fibres at the very base, and at the top either 
a pair of leaves or a solitary scape, in either case sheathed at 
the base with a few appressed convolute tubular membranous 
town scales, those of the scape very short, of the leaves 
longer. Leaves two to four inches long, in pairs, erect, fili- 
OCTOBER Ist, 1872, 
4 
