JPLATE 501. 



BULBINE ASPHODELOIDES, R. & S. (Fl. Cap. Vol. VI, p. 362). 

 Natural Order, 



A stemless perennial with a short thick tuberous rootstock. Leaves many, 

 10 to 25, linear, broadly channelled from base almost to apex, clasping at base and 

 gradually tapering from 2 to 3 lines at base to a fine point at apex, 6 to 1 2 inches 

 long, dark green, smooth, glabrous and shining. Peduncle 6 inches to 2| feet 

 long, terete or nearly so, raceme occupying 6 to 14 inches of the peduncle many 

 flowered ; bracts lanceolate from a broad base, curved, acuminate, up to ^ inch 

 long; lower pedicels spreading, ] to 1 inch long, the upper ones gradually 

 shorter. Flowers bright yellow ; perianth 6-parted in two rows, spreading to 8 

 lines wide, the segments oblong, obtuse, translucent. Stamens 6, shorter than 

 perianth, filaments flattened, bearded with long yellow hairs from near apex to 

 base, in those opposite the outer segments less copiously so. Anthers oblong, 

 dorsifixed, 2-celled. Ovary superior, 3-celled. Capsule enclosed by the withered 

 perianth, turbinate or indistinctly 3-lobed, 3-celled, cells 2-seeded, seeds 3-angled, 

 black, glabrous. 



Habitat: NATAL: Inanda, 1800 feet alt. Wood 1008; Nkandhla, 4000 to 5000 

 feet alt. J. Wylie (Wood 8981). Also in Cape Colony, Orange River Colony and 

 Transvaal. 



This plant was at one time and perhaps still is plentiful on the river flat near 

 the Lower Umgeni, a smaller form with glaucous leaves was collected by the 

 writer in the midlands of the colony, and the form here figured and described has 

 long been growing in the Botanic Gardens, and it in no way differs from the form 

 collected at Nkandhla, or from the one collected near Umgeni, so that the plant 

 has a very wide range. A closely allied species B. natalensis, Baker, was figured 

 in Vol. I, pi. 30 of this work, the chief distinctions between the two species being 

 the broad succulent leaves of B. natalensis and the narrow ones of the present 

 species, the filaments being also much more densely bearded than in those of 

 B. natalensis. 



With the exception of two species in Australia the genus is quite African, two 

 of the Cape species of which B. asphodeloides is one extend to Equatorial Africa. 



Fig. 1 , flower ; 2, stamen from opposite inner lobe of perianth ; 3, stamen 

 from opposite outer lobe of perianth; 4, pistil; 5, cross section of ovary; all 

 enlarged. 



