PLATE 306. 



SOILLA MEGAPHTLLA, Baker (PI. Cap. Vol. VI. p. 490). 

 Natural Order, LILIACEAE. 



Bulb large, 4 inches or more diameter, tunics thin, veiny. Leaves sessile, 

 lorate-lanceolate, 1^ foot long, 3 to 3J inches broad in centre, acute at apex where 

 the extreme margins are strongly infolded (in young specimens at least), a little 

 narrowed to base, the parallel veins in lower portion of the outer leaves dark 

 coloured. Peduncles, several to each bulb, 9 to 1 2 inches long, flattened in lower 

 portion, somewhat angular above, usually thickly covered with minute red spots 

 in central portion, sometimes dull red in upper part. Raceme (in our specimens) 

 4| to 5| inches long, 1J to 1^ inches diameter, laxly many flowered; pedicels erect 

 or patent, 4 to 5 lines long ; bracts subulate from a broad base, 2% lines long. 

 Perianth light green, campanulate, segments 8, oblong, acute, 2f lines long, green 

 in centre, margins whitish. Stamens 6, equalling perianth lobes, filaments white, 

 anthers ovate, versatile. Ovary sessile, 3-celled, cells 2-ovuled, ovules collateral ; 

 style a little longer than the stamens; stigma minute, truncate. Capsule 

 loculicidally 3-valved. 



Habitat: NATAL : Zululand, J. Wylie (Wood, No. 8645). Also in Transvaal. 



Amongst the Natal species of Scilla this one is well distinguished by the size 

 of its mature leaves as compared with the size of the bulb and inflorescence. It 

 was first found by Mr. Galpin in "damp grassy hollows near Barberton," at an 

 altitude of 2,800 feet. Bulbs were afterwards brought from Zululand by Mr. 

 Wylie and grown in the Botanic Gardens, Durban (Wood, No. 8645), but the leaves 

 have not attained their full size here. 



In Fig. 7 the artist has shown the ovary with all the ovules present, but we 

 have seldom found more than one cell in the ovary with two ovules. In Mr. 

 Galpin's 1184, a specimen of which is in the herbarium received from Mr. Galpin, 

 the ovaries are too small for us to be able to ascertain whether this is so in plants 

 gathered in the wild state. 



% Fig. 1, bulb with leaves and young flowers reduced; 2, raceme, nat. size; 3, 

 leaf about nat. size ; 4, flower ; 5, perianth and stamen ; 6, pistil ; 7, cross-section 

 of ovary ; except Figs. 1, 2, 3, oM enlarged. 



