Tab. 7357. 

 SANSEVIERIA Kibkii. 



Native of South-east Tropical Africa. 



Nat. Ord. H/EModorace/K. — Tribe Optiiopogoxe >;. 

 Genus Sansevieria, Tkunb.; (Benth, ct Hook.f. Gen. Plant, vol. iii. p. 679.) 



Sansevieria Ktrkti; rhizomatosa, foliis in rosulaa 3-4 oblanceolatis 2-3-peda- 

 libus rigide coriaceis sordide viridibus obscure albo maculatis rubro- 

 brunneo marginatis dirnidio saperiori subplanis deorsum crassis facie 

 canaliculars dorso conrexis striis 5 subtilibas verticalibus percursis, 

 pedunculo foliis breviori, racemo congesto subgloboso, bracteis primariis 

 ovatis, periantbii tubo viridulo cylindrico 4-5-pollicari, lobis oblanceolatis 

 tubo 4-5-plo brevioribus, staminibus lobis aequilongis, stylo protruso 

 apice stigmatoso capitate 



Sansevieria Kirkii, Baker in Kew Bullet. 1887, No. 5, p. 3, fig. 3, et p. 8. 



This new species of Bowstring Hemp is intermediate in 

 the character of the leaf between S. gmmensis and 8. 

 zeulanica, whilst in flower it substantially agrees with 

 8. longiflora, Sims (Bot. Mag. t. 2634). It was sent 

 (living plants) by Sir John Kirk, F.R.S., in 1881 to the Royal 

 Gardens, Kew, from the neighbourhood of the coast of the 

 African mainland opposite the island of Zanzibar. It 

 was briefly described provisionally in the first volume of 

 the Kew Bulletin, but at that time the flower was not 

 known. It flowered for the first time in the Palm House 

 at Kew in February, 1893, after having been in cultivation 

 twelve years. Messrs. Ide and Christy reported upon the 

 leaves which they examined in 1887 that they yielded fibre 

 1.69 per cent, in weight, as compared with the green leaf, 

 and that the fibre was rather stout, but very clean and 

 good in colour, and of fair strength, and that its value in 

 the market at that date was 211. per ton. 



Descr. — Rootstock a stout rhizome. Leaves not more 

 thau three or four to a tuft, oblanceolate, two or three 

 feet long, three inches broad above the middle, narrowed 

 gradually to an inch above the base, rigidly coriaceous, 

 dull green, obscurely mottled with white, bordered with a 



June 1st. 1894. 



