245 



Described from a Hying plant sent in 190G by Mr. H. Powell to 

 tbe Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, where it flowered on Sept. 10, 

 1909. Specimens in tlie Paris Herbarium, collected near ihe 

 sea-sbore of Zanzibar (this may mean tlie cost of German East 

 Africa and not the island of Zanzibar) by Saclcux (No. 1497), 

 may possibly belong to this species. 



44. S. metallica, Ger. Sf Labr. in Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris, 

 1903, pp. 170, 173, fig. 2. Stemless, with a creeping rootstock 

 f-1 in. thick, of 



when dry or expose 



giug lu puit; ui 



Jiilt plants 13 ( 



ery 



rarely 4) to a growth, erect or with the upper part more or less 

 spreading or recurved, firmly coriaceous, smooth, l|-5 ft. long, 

 2-5 in. broad, 1-2 lin. thick at the middle, elongated lanceolate 

 or broadly strap-shaped', acute, with a soft subulate green point 

 li-3 lin. long at the apex, tapering downwards from about the 

 middle into a dee^jly channelled petiole i-2 ft. long and i-1 in. 

 broad, sometimes there is a more or less evident channel down 

 the face of the leaf between the midrib and the margins, dull 

 dark green, not glaucous, somewhat obscurely marked above and 

 rather more distinctly beneath with irregular or interrupted 

 transverse bands or irregularly scattered or grouped blotches of 

 paler green, which often almost disappear with age; margins at 

 first green, becoming whitish or pnle reddish-brown, not 

 hardened. Flower-stem 1^-4 ft. high, i-| in. thick at the base, 

 light green, bearing on the lower half 3-6 distant membranous 

 whitish ovate-lanceolate very acute sheaths |~4 in. long, and at 

 the upper part a somewhat lax spike-like raceme of flower- 

 clusters. Bracts \-^ in. long, spreading, lanceolate, acuminate, 

 _„.„jranous, whitish. Flowers 2-4 in a cluster, white; pedicels 

 2-3^ lin. long, jointed close under the obconic base of the flower, 

 with no evident or but a very short (up to | lin. long) deciduous 

 part when alive, but when dried the base of the flower sometimes 

 contracts into a stalk-like part |-| lin. long; tube 6-8 lin. lojig. 



mem 



! 



in. 



long, linear, obtuse, revolute. — De Wildem., Notices PI. Utiles 

 du Congo, pp. 624, 625, %. 2. S. gvineensis, Baker in Journ. 

 Linn. Soc. vol. xiv, p. 547, in Eow Bull., May, 1887, p. 5, fig. 1, 

 and Fl. Trop. Afr. vol. vii, p. 333, excluding all synonymy not 

 mentioned here; Engler, Pflanzenwelt, C, t. 5, figs. A-F; 

 De Wildem. Notices PI. Utiles du Congo, p. 629, with fig., only; 

 Ann Inst. Colon. Marseille, 1902, t. 1; Volkens in Notizbl. 



Bot.Gart. Berlin, Append. 22, p. 52, fig. 120, not of "VVilldenow. 



S. quinecnsis vax. /I Schultes, Syst. Yeg. vol. vii, p. 355. 



Tropical Africa. Locality unknown, cultivated plants ! 



Described from a living plant, a portion of the type received 

 from the Paris Botanic Garden in 1903 at Kew, where it flowered 

 April 30, 1009 and Aug. 4, 1910. This plant is identical with 

 one that has been cultivated at Eew and elsewhere for many 

 years under the wrong name of *S. guineensis. Gerome and 

 Labrov, indeed, state that it appears to be only a variety of i. 

 nuwelnsis, meaning the plant commonljr cultivated under that 

 name. They describe the leaves as having a metallic tint, but 

 this I have not observed on the plant as cultivated at Kew. 



