80 



PLATE 99. 



GLADIOLUS PSITTACINUS, Hook, var Cooperi, Baker. 

 Natural Order, IBIDEM. 



Conn globose, 1J to 2 inches diameter, tunics chartaeeous, broad, ultimately 

 breaking up into fibres. Produced leaves 6 to 8, ensiform, rigid in texture, 2 to 3 

 feet long, f to ! inches broad. Stem 3 to 4 feet long, including the inflorescence. 

 Spike very lax, 1 foot or more long. Spathe valves yellow-green, oblong-lanceo- 

 late, 2 to 2^ inches long. Perianth tube strongly curved, 2 to 2^ inches long, sub- 

 cylindrical, very gradually widening from base, limb a little shorter than tube, 

 6-lobed, 3 upper segments hooded, ovate or obovate, acute, tapering to base, f to 1 

 inch broad, crimson externally, lighter within ; 3 lower ones much smaller, central 

 one broadly lanceolate, crimson with yellow markings in upper half, canary yellow 

 in lower half, 1J to 1^- inches long, ^ to f inch broad; lateral ones lanceolate, 

 yellow with faint crimson tinge at tip, f to 1 inch long, 4 to 5 lines wide, all 

 strongly recurved. Stamens 3, a little shorter than upper segments, on corolla at 

 base of tube, filaments filiform. Anthers linear, basifixed, sagittate at base, acute 

 at apex, 2-celled, 6-7 lines long. Style filiform, tapering to apex, curved. Stigmas 

 3, filiform, spreading. Ovary inferior, 3-celled, cells many seeded. Capsule 

 oblong, loculicidally 3-valved ; f to 1 inch long. Seeds discoid, winged. 



Habitat : ZULULAND : Coast districts. Delagoa Bay, Wood No. 5634. 



Drawn and described from specimens which were brought from Zululand by 

 Mr. W. Slatter, and which flowered, May, 1899. 



In the Flora Capensis, Vol. VI., page 158, this plant is described under the 

 above name, and a specimen of Wood's 5634, which was sent to Kew was certified 

 as being this plant. The difference given between the type and the variety are, 

 that in the type the perianth tube is 1^ to 2 inches long, in the variety 2| to 3 

 inches, and also that in the variety the segments are more acute. We find further 

 that the manner of propagation is somewhat different, in the type bulbils are pro- 

 duced close to the parent bulb, while in this variety they are produced at the ends 

 of filiform runners, reaching to a foot or more in length, sometimes producing other 

 bulbils beyond them. The plant thus increases rapidly, and in a few years forms 

 a dense mass of stems, which flower profusely, from April to June. It is the only 

 Gladiolus which succeeds really well in the Durban Botanic Gardens. 



Fig. 1, Plant divided, showing manner of propagation, flowers and leaves, 

 about natural size; 2, Section through flower; 3, 1 lower opened; 4, Stamen, front 

 and side view ; 5, Stigmas; t, Section through ovary ; all enlarged. 



PLATE 100. 



ALOE SAPONARIA, Haw. 

 Natural Order 



Stem 3 to 12 inches long. Leaves 12 to 20 in a dense rosette, lanceolate from 

 a broad base^; 4 to 12 inches long, 1 to 2-| inches wide at the base, ^ to f or more 

 inches thick in centre at base, dull green with darker lines and rows of indi-tinct 

 whitish blotches above, lighter green with dark lines beneath, margin with deltoid- 

 cuspidate, reddish brown, straight or curved pricles, 1 to 2 lines long, 3 to 5 lines 

 apart. Peduncle simple, or more usually forked, with a few scattered filiform 

 empty bracts springing from a broad base ; glabrous and shining, dark brown, 



