PLATE 552. 



HYPOXIS EIGIDULA, Baker. (Fl. Cap. Vol. 6, p. 186.) 

 Natural Order, AMAEYLLIDE^E. 



An erect herbaceous perennial with tuberous rootstock. Corm oblong, 1-2 

 inches diameter, crowned with a ring of fibres, roots thickened. Leaves 4-6 linear, 

 plicate, coriaceous, midrib prominent beneath ; erect, pilose with white hairs, 1 2 to 

 18 inches long, i to ^ inch wide, gradually narrowing to a fine point. Peduncles 

 2-3, up to a foot long, slender, pilose, from 2 to 8-flowered in uppermost portion ; 

 pedicels J to J inch long; bracts linear-subulate, | to 1 inch long; the whole in- 

 florescence more or less pilose. Perianth yellow, segments 6, cut down to the 

 ovary, 7 lines long, 3 to 5 lines wide, spreading to 14 to 17 lines wide, oblong- 

 lanceolate, the 3 outer ones densely pilose beneath, the 3 inner ones more sparsely 

 so, and with green keel. Anthers inch long, versatile, filaments shorter than the 

 anthers, thickened, yellow. Ovary 3-celled, cells many seeded, ovules superposed. 

 Style a little shorter than the filaments. Stigmas 3, concrete, Cap8ule turbinate, 

 densely villous, J inch long, " slitting round the middle, not dividing into valves." 

 Seeds globose, black. 



Habitat : NATAL: Inanda, 1,800 feet alt. Wood 407; near Gourton, 3,000 to 

 4,000 feet alt., Wood 3433, December; near Durban, 100 to 200 feet alt, Wood. 

 Tugela Gerrard, 1826. Also in East Griqualand, Cape Colony and Transvaal, and 

 probably in suitable situations over the whole of South Africa. 



This genus includes 50-60 species, the headquarters of which are in South 

 Africa, where 41 species are known and described, of which 19 are found in Natal, 

 the remainder in tropical Africa, tropical Asia, Australia and America. Dr. A. 

 Smith says of H. sericea, now known as H. argentea, var. sericea. " This is one of 

 the famine roots ; the bulbs are usually roasted, but sometimes boiled ; women and 

 children may be seen gathering them in the fields in time of famine. When roasted 

 an oil exudes out of the bulbs, which is applied to cure fresh wounds on the backs 

 of horses." Of another species he says that the resin got by roasting the bulbs is 

 used for fastening on the assegai heads. Of another species, H. Ro^peri, Rev. A. 

 T. Bryant says that it is said to be very poisonous, and that the tubers, of H. lati- 

 folia, a common species in Natal, are also poisonous. 



Fig. l,corm; 2, leaves and peduncles ; 3, a stamen; 4, style and stigmas; 

 5, cross section of ovary. Figs. 1 and 2 natural size ; 3, 4, 5, enlarged. 



