Tab. 5877. 

 GEISSORHIZA 'grandis. 



Large-flowered Tile-root. 



Nat. Ord. Iride^e. — Triandria Monogynia. 



Gen. Char. — Perianthium corollinum, infundibuliforme, tubo brevi v. 

 elongato; limbi ampli 6-partiti lacirme subaequales, basi poro nectarifero 

 instructs, erecto-patentes. Stamina 3, tubo perianthii inserta, suberecta, 

 inclusa, filamentis filifbrmibus ; antherae lineares, basifixaj. Ovarium ob- 

 tuse 3-gonum, 3-loculare ; stylus filiformis, stigmatibus 3 lineari-cuneatis 

 conduplicatis margine subfimbriatis ; ovula plurima, in angulo centrali locu- 

 larum 2-seriata, horizontalia, anatropa. Capsula membranacea, pris- 

 matico-3-gona, 3-locularis, loculicido-3-valvis. Semina plurima minuta.— - 

 Herbee Africse-australis et Abyssinia?. Rhizoma bulboso-tuberosum, bulbo exuviis 

 crustaceis v. scariosis deorsum imbricatis tunicato. Folia pauca, radicalia 

 v. radicalia et caulina, setacea linearia v. emiformia. Scapus simplex v. 

 ramosus. Flores secundi, solitarii v. spicati, singuli spatha 2-valvi 

 inelusis. 



Geissorhtza grandis; caule robusto pedali folioso, foliis § poll. diam. 

 lineari-ensiformibus obtusis, spica 5-7-flora, bracteis spathaceis convo- 

 lutis lanceolatis perianthii tubum gracillimum elongatum pollicarem 

 superantibus, perianthii limbo 2 poll. diam. segmentis a^qualibus obo- 

 vato-ellipticis obtusis pallide stramineis costa tenui sanguinea, antheris 

 fusco-purpureis. 



The genus Geissorhiza includes some twenty species, all 

 natives of the Cape Colony, with the exception of an un- 

 described Madagascarian, and an Abyssinian one (G. abyssi- 

 nica, Br.), which extends from Abyssinia across tropical 

 Africa to the Cameroons Mountains, in the Bight of Benin 

 {G. montana, Hk. F.), and to which Klat has further referred 

 a Cape species. Of all these not one approaches either in 

 stature or size of flower the subject of the present plate, of 

 which bulbs were sent to the Koyal Gardens in 1866, by 

 Mr. Wilson, keeper of St. George's Park, Port Elizabeth, 

 and which flowered first in May, 1868. 



Descr. Bulbs globose, the size of a hazel-nut, clothed with 

 a delicate closely reticulated fibrous tunic. Stem ten to 



DECEMBER 1ST, 1870. 



