Tas. 6429, 
ALBUCA WAKEFIELDII. 
Native of Kast Tropical Africa. 
Nat: Ord. Litiacea:.—Tribe Scruie”. 
Genus Axsuca, Linn.: (Baker in Journ. Linn. Soe. vol. xiii. p. 285.) 
AtBuca (Pallastema) Wakefieldii; bulbo ovoideo tunicis brunneis apice 
truncatis, foliis 4-5 lineari-ensiformibus acuminatis glabris flaccidis peda- 
libus vel sesquipedalibus, scapo tereti bipedali, floribus 10-12 imodoris 
cernuis laxe racemosis, pedicellis ascendentibus flore brevioribus, bracteis 
parvis lanceolatis, perianthii albo-viriduli segmentis exterioribus planis 
lineari-oblongis, interioribus oblanceolato-oblongis albido marginatis apice 
cucullatis, staminibus omnibus fertilibus, filamentis applanatis basi pan- 
duriformibus, antheris parvis oblongis, stylo subulato ovario 2-3 plo-longiori. 
The bulbs of this interesting new A/suca were sent by the 
Rey. Mr. Wakefield, through Colonel Grant, to the Kew col- 
lection, where the plant flowered for the first time last autumn. 
Pallastema is a subgenus of Albuca, with a perianth like that 
of the type, but with a style instead of being short and 
prismatic, subulate, and much longer than the ovary, as in an 
ordinary Ornithogalum or Scilla. he subgenus is confined to 
tropical Africa, and for nearly a century only a single species 
was known, Albuca abyssinica, named by Dryander, and 
figured by Jacquin and Redouté. Through the explorations 
of late years six additional species have been added, four by 
Dr. Welwitsch in Angola, and one by Baines on the east side 
of the continent, near the southern tropic. Since the date of 
my monograph of Albuca in 1873, altogether twelve new 
species have been added to the sixteen then known. 
Duscr. Bulb pale green, ovoid, an inch and a half in 
diameter ; tunics membranous, pale brown, not produced into 
bristles at the tip. Leaves four or five produced, cotempo- 
rary with the flowers, linear-ensiform, flaccid, glabrous, a 
foot or a foot and a half long, an inch broad at the base, 
tapering to the point. Scape terete, longer than the leaves. 
Flowers ten or twelve, arranged in a laxe raceme, which is six 
