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ON THE NEW AMARYLLIDACE.^ OF THE WELWITSCH 



AND SCHWEINFUETH EXPEDITIONS. 



By J. G. Baker, F.K.S. 



(Tab. 197.) 



The following are the new Amaryllidacece contained in the sets 

 I have seen of the plants gathered by Dr. Welwitsch in Angola, 

 and Dr. Schweinfnrth in Central Afiica. Type specimens of all 

 of the former may be seen at the British Museum, and of the 

 latter at Kew. 



Cryptostephanus, Welw. MSS., (jenus novum. Perianth narrowly 

 funnel-shaped, the permanently ascending oblong - lanceolate 

 segments half as long as the more or less curved tube. Anthers 

 six, small, oblong, nearly sessile in a single series at the middle of 

 the perianth-tube. Staminodia twelve, linear, two inserted at the 

 base of each segment of the perianth, where they unite, running 

 down the tube as an adnate strap-shaped j)rocess, from the middle 

 of which the anther sx3rings. Ovary inferior, three-celled ; ovules 

 several in a cell, axile, horizontal, superposed. Style short, erect, 

 cylindrical. Stigma peltate, placed on the same level as the 

 anthers. Fruit a globose scarlet berry. Seeds one to two in a cell, 

 turgid, not seen fully mature. 



C. DENSiFLORus, Welw. MSS. Eoot-stock a " compact bulb- 

 tuber." Leaves six to eight, cotemporary with the flowers, lorate, 

 glaucescent, glabrous, moderately firm in texture, finally a foot 

 long, three-eighths to half an inch broad. ScajDe central, mode- 

 rately stout, compressed, ancipitous, six to eight inches long. 

 Bracts in a whorl, as in Hamanthus, unequal, lanceolate, greenish, 

 membranous, an inch long. Flowers, twenty to thu'ty or more, in 

 a dense globose head; pedicels very short. Ovary green, round- 

 oblong, one- sixth of an inch long. Limb dark-purple, more or less 

 curved, under half an inch long ; curved tube a quarter of an 

 inch ; segments one -eighth of an inch, slightly cucullate at the 

 tip. Staminodia more than half as long as the perianth-segments. 

 Anthers under a line long. Berry the size of a pea (about three- 

 eighths of an inch diameter), bright scarlet. [Tab. 197] . 



Huilla, in bushy x)laces, in di-y, sandy soil near Lopollo, in the 

 temperate region (3800-5500 feet), flowering in October and 

 November, fruiting in January, Wehvitsch, 4027! 



This is certainly the most interesting new plant amongst 

 all the hundred and twenty new bulbs which Dr. Welwitsch 

 discovered* in his Angolan expedition. Not to go beyond the 

 N. s. VOL 7. [July, 1878.] 2 c 



