PLTTE 377. 



WATSONIA MEEIANA, Miller. (Fl. Cap. Vol VI., p. 101.) 

 Natural Order, IBIDEAE. 



" Corm globose, 1 to 1-g- inch diameter ; tunics of reticulated fibres ending at 

 the top in a ring of bristles." Stems 3 to 4 feet long. Leaves, basal ones 3 to 4, 

 ensiform, I to 2 feet long, \ to f- inch broad (in our specimen), erect, very rigid, 

 mid-vein very prominent, lateral ones fine, numerous. Stem leaves similar but 

 shorter. Inflorescence spicate ; spathe-valves oblong-lanceolate, acute, reddish- 

 brown, rigid, striate, 1 -flowered, 1 inch long. Flowers 7 to 20 in a lax spike, 

 bright red. Perianth tube curved ; 1^ to 2 inches long, gradually widening to 

 throat, cylindrical in upper half, throat y to ^ inch diameter, segments oblong, 

 acute, f to 1 inch long. Stamens 3, unilateral, inserted above base of corolla tube, 

 included; anthers - inch long, linear-oblong, versatile, sagittate at base. Style 

 filiform, 3-branched, branches short, bifid, shorter than the perianth. Ovary sub- 

 globose, 3-celled, ovules numerous, superposed. Fruit an oblong loculiciclal 

 capsule. " Seeds globose or angled by pressure." 



Habitat.- NATAL: On a stony hill near Byrne, 2-3000 feet alt, Wood, 1574; not 

 uncommon in open ground in the midlands and upper districts. 



A very handsome and common plant in the mid and uplands of the Colony, 

 usually found on stony hills, and always in open ground, where its bright red 

 flowers are very conspicuous. It has long been in cultivation in Europe. It was 

 figured and described as Antholyza Meriana Linn, in the Botanical Magizine Vol. 

 XII., pi. 418, and again in the same work under its present name in Vol XXX., 

 pi. 1193. 



Fig. 1, corolla opened; 2, a stamen; 3, style and stigma; 4, cross section of 

 ovary; except Jig. I, all enlarged. 



