PLATE 548, 



HAEMANTHUS ALBOMACULATTJS, Baker. (Fl. Cap. Vol. VI, p. 235.) 

 Natural Order AMARYLLIDE^;. 



Rootstock a tunicated elongate bulb, tunics thick, green. Leaves 3-4, con- 

 temporary with the flowers, lorate, obtuse, suberect, a foot or more long, 1-2- 

 inches wide in upper portion, glabrous, usually, but not always with a few 

 white spots, very minutely ciliate. Scape compressed, light green, pubescent, 

 4 to 8 inches long, -|-f inch diameter. Inflorescence in densely flowered bracteate 

 heads, bracts 6-7, oblong, acute, white with numerous green veins, minutely 

 ciliate, 1^ to 1-^ inch long, in breadth varying considerably in the same head ; 

 pedicels up to inch long. Perianth white, tube cylindrical, ^ to ^ inch long, 

 segments 6, linear, more than twice the length of the tube. Filaments white, 

 longer than the corolla; anthers oblong, versatile. Style as long as the stamens. 

 Ovary inferior, 3-celled, cells 1-ovuled. Fruit baccate, indehiscent, subglobose to 

 oblong, compressed, or 3-angled with the angles rounded, glabrous and shining, 

 red when ripe, 3-seeded ; seeds ovate, glabrous, shining, 5 lines by 4 lines. 



Habitat : NATAL : From close to the sea to at least 1000 ft. alt., Mount More- 

 land, 100 ft. alt., Wood 1006; near Durban, 20 ft. alt., Wood 1989. Also gathered 

 in Pondoland by Bachmann 293. 



Usually found at edges of woods or in light shade, and very plentiful near 

 the sea at the mouth of the Umgeni. This species differs from H. puniceus, chiefly 

 by the shape and texture of the leaves, and colour of the flowers, the latter 

 species having, however, a much wider range being found in the Cape Oolony in 

 forests at a height above the sea of 2000 to 3000 feet, while H. albomaculatus is 

 only reported from the localities above quoted. 



Fig. 1, leaf, natural size; 2, a flower; 3, a stamen; 4, style; 5, cross section 

 of ovary; except fig. 1, all enlarged. 



