Tab. 7860. 

 GLADIOLUS Mackindeei. 



Native of British East AfHca. 



Nat. Ord. Iridej:. — Tribe IxiE^. 

 Genus GrlADiOLUS, Linn.; (Benth. & Hook.f. Gen. Plant, vol. iii. p, 709.) 



Gladiolus (Homoglosaum) Maekinderi; caule gracili bipedali laxe folioso, 

 foliis anguate linearibus inferioribus pedalibua ^-l poll, latis acuminatis 

 rigidis aubglauco-viridibus, costa concolore valida, spica 6-pollicari 

 5-6-flora, spathis oblongo-lanceolatis acutis herbaceis couvolutis iniima 

 l^-poUicari, floribua secundis, perianthii tubo l-ll-pollicari anreo, 

 segmentis consinailibus, sessilibus late ovato-orbicularibus apicibns rotan- 

 datis concavis coccineis exterioribas pgiullo tnajoi'ibiis, staminibus seg- 

 mentis triente breviovibus flavis, antheris ad ^ poll, longis basi et apice 

 breviter bilobis. 



The genus Gladiolus is a characteristic feature of the 

 hilly and mountainous country of Eastern tropical Africa, 

 whence about thirty-five species have been obtained, 

 all but two of these endemic ; the two exceptions being 

 found also on the Western side of the continent, whence 

 ten species have been described. From the data given by 

 Mr. Baker in the " Flora of Tropical Africa," the elevation 

 the genus affects in tropical Africa is two thousand to eleven 

 thousand feet. The species most closely allied to G. 

 MacMnderi is G. Watsonioides, Baker, t. 6919; a much 

 taller and longer-leaved plant, with flowers two inches 

 broad, ovate, flat, sub-acute perianth-segments and sagit- 

 tate anthers. It was found on Kilimanjaro, at elevations of 

 eight thousand five hundred feet to eleven thousand feet by 

 Mr. Thomson and Sir Harry Johnston, who sent seeds of 

 it to Kew, from which plants were raised that flowered in 

 1886. According to Mr. Baker, G. Watsonioides is also a 

 native of alpine pastures on Kenia, at ten thousand to 

 eleven thousand feet elevation, whence I have not seen 

 specimens. 



Mr. Baker, in the Fl. Trop. Afr. vii. 374, refers his G. 

 Watsonioides to the section Homoglossum of Anthohjzn, 

 characterized by the equal or sub-equal segments of the 

 perianth. But section Homoglossnm appears to me to be 

 referable to Gladiolus (in which it is placed in his " Hand- 



OcTOBt:R 1st, 1902. 



