Plate 67. Fig. 1, column, front view ; 2, ditto, side view ; 

 3, pollinium — magnified. 



An erect stout glabrous herb, 40-100 cm. high ; radical leaves 

 3-5, from a separate bud, erect-spreading lanceolate-ensiform acute, 

 15-30 cm. long, 2-5 cm. wide ; stem straight, densely clothed with 

 leaf-like erect-spreading, ovate or lanceolate, acute sheaths ; spike 

 oblong, 13-40 cm. long, densely many-flowered, flowers ascending, 

 among the largest in the genus ; bracts membranous, ovate- or 

 lanceolate-oblong, acuminate, often reflexed at the apex, equalling 

 the flowers or more rarely as long as the ovary ; lateral sepals 

 spreading ovate-oblong obtuse, mucronulate below the apex, 

 2*3-2-8 cm. long ; odd sepal horizontal galeate, the mouth obovate, 

 emarginate at the apex, produced above the base into an arcuate- 

 pendent spur, slightly inflated at the base, attaining 3*5 cm. in 

 length ; petals sub-erect, obliquely ovate subacute, as long as the 

 sepals ; lip spreading-deflexed, rhomboid-ovate or rhomboid-lanceo- 

 late, obtuse or acute, as long as the petals ; rostellum ascending 

 oblong 3dentate, the teeth acute, equal in length ; anther strongly 

 resupinate ; stigma declinate, much shorter than the rostellum ; 

 ovary 3-4 cm. long. 



Described from two living and several dried specimens. The 

 plant figured under tab. 66 flowered in the Cape Town Botanic 

 Gardens, and is much less robust than the wild specimens of this 

 species usually are ; that figured under tab. 67 is of doubtful 

 origin but was probably also a cultivated specimen. Both drawings 

 give a very inadequate representation of this fine and handsome 

 species. 



