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PLATE 202- 



SOILLA LANCE JIFOLIA, Baker (in Saund. Ref. Bot. t. 182). 

 Natural Order, LILIAOEJ:. 



Bulb ovoid, tunicated, 2 to 3 inches diameter. Leaves 6 to 8, radical, form- 

 ing a spreading rosette, ovate-oblong, oblong, or oblong-lanceolate, acute or subcu- 

 cullate at apex, margin quite entire, and subcartilagenous, dark green, usually, but 

 not always with darker blotches on upper surface, lighter and concolorous 

 beneath, reaching in age to 5-6 inches long, and 1^ to 2^ inches broad in the 

 middle. Peduncles 2 to 8 to a bulb, usually curved, issuing from between the 

 leaves, strongly ancipital, outer surface rounded, inner flat, green, more or less 

 tinged, spotted or lined with pink, especially in upper portion, sometimes the 

 whole peduncle a deep and dull pink ; 2 to 6 inches long to base of raceme, 2 to 3 

 lines wide at base. Racemes dense, 1^ to 6 inches long, 1 to 1^ inches 

 diameter. Pedicels 4 to 8 lines long, erect in bud, cernuous in flower. Bracts 

 minute, broad-based, lacerate. Perianth in bud oblong, a lit f le constricted above 

 the base ; segments 6, in two rows, 3 lines long, 1 line wide, minutely cucullate at 

 apex with a broad, greenish-brown central band and pink margins which are 

 lighter in colour on the outer surface of the open flower, strongly reflexed. 

 Stamens 6, on base of, and a little shorter than the perianth segments. Filaments 

 linear, flattened, accuminate at apex, bright purple, greenish at base. Anthers 

 2-celled, oblong, versatile, introrse. Style 1 , 3-lobed, purple, stigma obtuse. 

 Ovary stipitate, deeply 3-lobed, lobes rounded at apex, and each lobe with 2 fleshy, 

 laterally elongated protuberances just above the base. Capsule loculicidally 

 3 -celled, seeds 2 in each cell. 



Habitat: NATAL. 



Drawn and described from specimens gathered near Durban, September, 



This genus contains 80 to 90 species of which 57 or 58 are natives of 

 South Africa and of these nine at least are known to be found in Natal. The 

 specimens, from which the drawing was made, appear to come midway between 

 S. Iancea3folia and S. ovatifolia, the latter species having been formerly known as 

 S. lanceasfolia, var ovatifolia, but as there are no authentic specimens of S. ovati- 

 folia in the Government Herbarium, I prefer to consider the species here des- 

 cribed as fc. lanceaifolia. The dark markings on the leaves are very variable, 

 sometimes very plain, and on other specimens scarcely discernable, and I am 

 inclined to think that the same variability occurs in other species of the genus. 



Fig. 1, flower; 2, section through flower ; 3, ovary and style; 4, cross section 

 through ovary ; 5, petal with stamen ; all enlarged. 



