TAB, 7088, 
STRELITZIA Niconatr. 
Native of South Africa 
‘Nat. Ord. ScrraminEx.—Tribe Muse. 
Genus Strevirzia, Ait. ; (Benth. et Hook.f. Gen, Pl. vol. iii. p. 656.) 
Streirz1a Nicolai; caudice elato, foliis erectis lamina petiolo xquilonga 
elliptico-oblonga obtusa basi cuneata rotundata v. subcordata, scapo brevissimo 
robusto, bracteis 5-6 pedalibus cymbiformibus acuminatis griseo-brumeis, 
pedicellis crassis roseis, sepalis subequalibus concavis lanceolatis acuminatis, 
petalo exteriore brevissimo ovato-rotundato mucronato, lateralibus in laminam 
sagittatam ceruleam connatis. ; 
S. Nicolai, Regel & Korner in Gartenfl. 1858, p. 265, t. 235; Karner in 
Mittheil. der Russ. Gartenb, vol. i. p. 54, eum Te.; Jovet in Rev. Hortic. 
1888, p. 117; FU. de Serres xiii. 1356 ; Gard. Chron, 1888, pt. ii. p. 695. 
The date of introduction of this fine plant, which, seeing 
the stature it has attained, must have been cultivated in 
European Botanical Gardens for a great many years, is 
unknown; nor has its native locality in South Africa been 
ascertained. In habit and foliage it so closely resembles 
the familiar S. Augusta (see Bot. Mag. t. 4167), that 
before it flowered it was naturally supposed to be that 
plant. §. Augusta was introduced in 1791 by Francis 
Masson, but there is no record of where he procured the 
plant. Thunberg, who discovered S. Augusta during his 
travels in 8, Africa (1772—1775), gives as its habitat, in his | 
Prodromus Flora Capensis, the Pisang River in Anteniqua 
Land. These names I do not find in any map or gazeteer, — 
but I presume .the latter to be the Oliphant River from 
the following facts. Burchell, the famous botanical traveller 
in South Africa, never met with S. Augusta except in the 
Cape Town Botanical Gardens, but he says that its Dutch 
name is “ Welde Pisang,” the wild Plantain, Pisang being 
the Malay name of the Plantain, which this Strelitzia 
resembles in foliage, and Thunberg’s Anteniqua may be 
assumed to be the region of the Onteniqua Mountains, 
through which the Oliphant River flows. This identifica- 
tion of the river is confirmed by a reference to the valuable 
Faprvuary Ist, 1889. 
