PLATE 504. 



CBINDM MOOBEI, HOOK, f. (Fl. Cap. Vol. VI, p. 200). 

 Natural Order, AMARYLLIDE^;. 



Bulb ovoid, " copiously stoloniferous " with a neck 1 foot or more long. 

 Leaves 12 to 15 to a bulb, widely spreading, recurved, narrowly oblong, tapering 

 to each end, acute at apex, dark green, margins quite entire, 3 feet long, up to 

 5 inches broad in middle, texture of lamina thin, midrib rather stout at base where 

 it is about 2J inches broad. Peduncle up to 3 feet long, stout, green, but reddish 

 brown at base. Flowers 6 to 10 in each umbel, the buds tinged with pink, mature 

 flowers pure white or slightly tinged with pink ; pedicels 2 to 3J inches long ; 

 spathe-valves oblong, obtuse, very broad based, longitudinally infolded half way 

 down from apex, 4 inches long, 2-J inches wide at base , bracts linear, 3-4 inches 

 long. Perianth tube 2J to 3^ inches long, limb 6-parted, segments oblong, 

 narrowed to both ends, acute and thickened at apex, subequal or the outer slightly 

 narrower, up to 3 inches long, 1| to If inch broad above the middle. Stamens 6, 

 on throat of perianth tube, filaments white, slightly tinged with pink, decimate, 

 strongly recurved, 2| to 2f inches long ; anthers linear, dorsifixed, versatile, at 

 first straight, 1 inch long, afterwards strongly curved and much contracted, pollen 

 white. Ovary inferior, oblong, ^ inch long, 3-celled, ovules few in each cell 

 immersed in the thick placenta ; style a little longer than the perianth lobes, 

 filiform, pink in upper portion, minutely 3-lobed at apex. Fruit a large globose 

 capsule bursting irregularly, seeds large, bulbiform. 



Habitat : NATAL only. Inanda 1800 feet alt., Wood 1164, November; without 

 precise locality, Mrs Saunders ; Zululand, /- Wylie. Drawn and described from 

 the Inanda specimen which flowered in the Botanic Gardens in September. 



The genus Crinum according to the . Genera Plantarum includes about 60 

 species which are widely dispersed in tropical and subtropical regions, in South 

 Africa we have 8 species 4 of which are found in Natal and Zululand, C. Moorei 

 being so far as at present known confined to Natal. It is usually found in light 

 shade and often in rocky places, the bulbs being crowded together and more or 

 less above the surface of the ground, differing in this respect from the other Natal 

 species whose bulbs are solitary. A synonym is G. Mackoyanum, and it has been 

 known to gardeners as G. Golensoi and also as G. Mackenii and G. natalensis but 

 it has never been described under these names. The Flora Capensis says of it 

 "Our first knowledge of it was from a sketch sent by Bishop Colenso in J858. 

 G. Schmidtii, Regel, Gartenflora Vol. XXXI (1882) 34, t. 1072 is probably a white 

 flowered 'Variety of this species." It was figured in the Botanical Magazine for 

 1874, and is there described and shown has having a perianth " bright rose red " 

 the form here described is most likely the one figured in the " Gartenflora " as 

 G. Schmidtii. The Botanical Magazine also says " a closely allied species to this 

 is the G. Golensoi of Natal which will shortly be figured " this proved as above 

 stated to be only a variety. 



Fig. 1, umbel slightly reduced; 2, leaf, half natural size; 3, stamen, natural 

 size; 4, style and stigma, enlarged. 



