Tap. 8487. | 
SANSEVIERIA AETHIOPICA. 
South Africa. 
Linraceak. Tribe DrRaACAENEAE. 
SansEvierta, Thunb.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. iii. p. 679. 
Sansevieria aethiopica, Thunb. Prodr. Pl. Cap. p. 65; Nov. Gen. p. 127, 
et Fl. Cap. ed. Schultes, p. 829; Schultes, Syst. Veg. vol. vii. p. 358; Kunth, 
Enum. Plant. vol. v. p. 19; affinis S. zeylmicae, Willd., sed foliis numero- 
sioribus brevioribus haud subeylindricis et multo tenuioribus facile 
distinguitur. 
Suffrutex succulentus, acaulis. Folia 13-30, subrosulata, suberecta vel erecto- 
patula, 12-40 cm. longa, 1-1°5 cm. lata, 8-6 mm. crassa, lineari-lanceolata, 
acuta, in subulas 2-3 cm, longas albidas excurrentia, concavo-cavaliculata, 
dorso valde convexa, atroviridia, interdum transverse zonata, subglauca, 
rubro- vel albido-marginata. In/florescentia 40-75 em. alta, inferne vaginis 
5-7 acuminatis membranaceis 2-7 cm. longis instructa, superne spicato- 
racemosa, floribus fasciculatis; fasciculi 4-6-flori. Bracteae membranaceae, 
patulae vel reflexae, 5-12 mm. longae, ovato-lanceolatae, acutae. Pedicellt 
mm. longi, supra medium articulati. Perianthium album; tubus 
1°8-2°5 em. longus, basi leviter inflatus; lobi 1°7-2 cm. longi, 2 mm. lati, 
subspathulato-lineari, revoluti. Stamina longe exserta. Stylus staminibus 
longior; stigma minute capitata.—S. zeylanica, Red. Lil. vol. v. t. 290; 
Lindl. Bot. Reg. vol. ii. t. 160; Baker in FI. Cap. vol. vi. p. 5, syn. exclus. ; 
non Willd.—N. E. Brown. 
The systematic position of the genus Sansevieria, Thunb., 
familiar and economically interesting as that which includes 
the plants yielding the fibre known as Bowstring Hemp, has 
been a subject of difficulty and debate. Transferred, for 
what at the time appeared to be valid reasons, by the 
authors of the “ Genera Plantarum” in 1883 from Liliaceae 
to Haemodoraceae, it has recently, as the outcome of renewed 
investigation, been replaced in Liliaceae next to the genus 
Dracaena, Vand. The species which forms the subject of 
our plate, S. aethiopica, is one of those upon which Thunberg 
founded the genus, and has been in cultivation in Europe 
for over a century, yet it has never, so far, been figured 
under its own proper name. This has been due to its 
having been mistaken for S. zeylanica, Willd., a plant till 
recently very imperfectly known, but one which, now that 
wild specimens have been obtained for the Kew collection 
from Ceylon, is found to be altogether distinct from the 
ApRiL, 1913. ; 
