PLATE 595. 



BUPHANE DISTICHA, Herb. (Fl. Cap. Vol. 6, p. 242.) 

 Nat. Order, AHARTSLLIDE^. 



Bulb ovoid, 2 to 3 inches diameter (in our specimens) with a large number of 

 tunics, the outermost dark in colour, and firmer in texture than the others, 

 the inner lighter in colour, semitransparent, veiny and of very delicate texture. 

 Leaves 8 to 16, distichous, erect, linear, coriaceous, sub-glaucous, more or 

 less spirally twisted, gradually narrowed to the apex, 12 to 18 inches long, 

 margins smooth and semitransparent. Peduncles stout, compressed, ancipitous, 1 

 light green, sub-glaucous, equalling or exceeding the leaves. Flowers very 

 numerous, pink:, in a dense umbel, with two opposite spathe-valves which are 

 triangular acuminate, 1 1- to 3 inches long. Pedicels 2 to 4 inches long. Corolla 

 gamopetalous 2 to 2^ inches long, a little swollen in upper portion, limb 6-cleft, 

 segments linear | to 1 inch long. Stamens 6, inserted at throat of perianth, and 

 a little longer than its segments ; filaments filiform, pink ; anthers oblong, versatile, 

 white. Ovary triangular in section, 3-celled, cells 2 to 4-seeded ; style simple; 

 curved, a little longer than the stamens, red ; capsules turbinate, locnlicidally 

 3-valved. 



Habitat: NATAL. Inanda, 1 ,800 ft. alt. Wood 1401, September; Clairmont, 

 10 to 30 ft. alt. Wood 1584 ; same locality December, Wood. Also Drakensberg, 

 Bolus 2834, Cape Colony and Transvaal. Extends to Angola (Welwitsch) and the 

 mountains round Lake Nyassa (Thompson) and Lake Tanganyika (Cameron). 



The genus Buphane includes 3 species only, all African, the other two species 

 B. longipedicellata and B. ciliaris being confined to Cape Colony. This plant was 

 introduced into Europe in 1774, and is often found in catalogues as Brunsvigi* 

 toxicaria, or Buphane toxicaria, but the name here given is the correct one. 

 flowers are ornamental, but it may not be generally known that the plant 

 or less poisonous, as it contains a substance nearly related to both brucine and 

 strychnine, "differing, however from both in its chemical reaction. 

 Juritz, MA., in Transactions of the S.A. Philosophical Society, Vol. XVI., part 2, 

 1 905) the writer has frequently seen these flowers in the possession of children 

 and has taken the opportunity of warning them as to its poisonous properties, b 

 it must be remembered that it was the bulb only that was carefully examined, n 

 the leaves or the flowers so far as we are aware, but after the careful tests 

 by Mr. Juritz it is safer to regard the whole plant as poisonous, especially wh 

 handled by children. 



Fig. 1, bulb, base of leaves and peduncle; 2, leaf; 3, inflorescence ; 4 perianth 

 opened showing stamens; 5, anther; 6, cross section of ovary; figs. 1, 2, 3 

 pize, 4, 5, 6 enlarged. 



