TAR. 4005. 
ACIDANTHERA zquinoctiauis. 
Native of Sierra Leone. 
Nat. Ord. IntpEa2.—Tribe Ix1mz. 
Genus ActpantuErRa, Hochst.; (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. iii. p. 706.) 
ACIDANTHERA xegninoctialis ; cormo magno, depresso-globoso tunicis exteriori- 
bus scariosis brunneis fibris parallelis, caule stricto erecto elongato, foliis 
pluribus ensiformibus superpositis pedalibus vel sesquipedalibus vaginato, 
spicis distichis laxissimis simplicibus 3—6-floris, spathe valvA exteriori 
lanceolata elongata foliacea, perianthii tubo cylindrico apice curvato, 
limbi segmentis ovatis cuspidatis late imbricatis albis basi purpureo 
maculatis flore expanso horizantaliter patulis, genitalibus arcuatis limbo 
paulo brevioribus, fructu oblongo-trigono. 
A. equinoctialis, Baker in Journ. Linn. Soc. vol. xvi. p. 160; Handb. Irid. 
p. 188. Gladiolus equinoctialis, Herb. inedit. 
This is the tallest and most showy of all the known 
species of Acidanthera, a genus which holds an interme- 
diate position between Gladiolus and Ivia. The present — 
species for half a century has been known only from a 
drawing of the spike by Dean Herbert, contained in a 
bound quarto volume of his sketches in the Lindley 
library. It was rediscovered in fruit in 1892 by Mr. 
Scott-Elliot, in the crevices of bare gneiss rocks, near the 
summit of Sugarloaf Mountain, Sierra Leone, at an 
elevation of about three thousand feet above sea-level. In 
this state it was not recognized, and was distributed in 
his dried collection as No. 3904. In 1893 a quantity 
of corms was sent home by Captain Donovan, which was 
handed over to the Royal Gardens at Kew. ‘Those which 
received greenhouse treatment failed to flower, but in a 
warm conservatory they found themselves quite at home, 
and came into flower in the month of November. Seven- 
teen species of the genus are now known. One inhabits 
Mount Kilimanjaro, two the mountains of Abyssinia, one of 
them extending to Zambesi land, and all the others belong 
to different regions of the Cape Colony. 
Deser.—Corm large, depresso-globose; outer tunics 
Scariose, brown, with parallel fibres. Stem stout, stiffly 
Janvary Ist, 1895, a2 
