344 cxxxvi. IRIDE^ (baker). \Fe7'raria. 



tube ; anthers small, ovate or oblong. Ovary cylindrical, rostrate, 3- 

 celled ; ovules many, superposed ; style filiform, its branches bifid or 

 flattened at the densely fimbriated apex. Capsule oblong, 3-valved. 

 Seeds subglobose. — Rootstock a large irregularly shaped corm. Leaves 

 long, linear. Stem often branched, furnished with many ovate clasping 

 reduced leaves. Spathe-valves firm, green. Flowers fugitive, Usually 

 greenish or purplish-black. 



Species 7, the others South African. 



Perianth segments yellow, panduriform . . . 1. ^. WelwitscMi. 



Perianth segments red, oblanceolate . . . . 2. F. hechuanica. 



1. F. Welwitschii, Baker ^ Handh. Irid. 74. Stems slender, under 

 a foot long, branched below the middle, bearing 4 clusters of flowers on 

 long ascending peduncles. Stem-leaves linear, distantly superposed, the 

 longest 3-4 in. long. Spathes cylindrical, IJ in. long; outer valve 

 shorter than the 'next. Flowers bright yellow ; segments subequal, 

 1 in. long, with a spreading panduriform acute blade, copiously blotched 

 with brown up to the tip, longer than the broad claw. Staminal column 

 shorter than the claw ; anthers oblong, just overtopped by bifid laciniated 

 tips of the style- branches. 



^Oliver Guinea. Angola, Welwitsch. 



Described from a drawing of a plant that flowered in the garden of Mr. Wilson 

 Saunders at Reigate in July 1871, the corm of which was sent to him by Dr. 

 Welwitsch. 



2. P. bechuanica, Baker. Stem stout, erect, glabrous, 2-3 ft. 

 long, forked three times, bearing short linear strongly-ribbed glabrous 

 leaves from the forks and a long erect one from the base. Spathes 

 3-G-flowered, cylindrical, 1-^-2 in. long ; valves rigid, light green ; outer 

 valve very short. Perianth-segments oblanceolate, | in. long, dark red- 

 brown and green. Filaments united in a cylindrical tube, J in. long ; 

 anthers small, oblong, yellow, spreading from its top. Style-branches 

 short, bifid, densely penicillate ; hairs brown. Capsule oblong, sub- 

 stipitate, | in. long, narrowed to the base. 



Mozazub. Dist. Ngamiland : Kalahari Desert, near Mamunwe, Lngard, 237 ! 



4. ROMULEA, Maratti; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. iii. 694. 



Perianth with a short tube and 6 obovate imbricate subequal seg- 

 ments. Stamens alternate with the style-branches; filaments inserted 

 at the throat of the perianth-tube, free in the tropical African species ; 

 anthers lanceolate-sagittate. Ovary oblong, 3-celled; ovules many, 

 superposed ; style filiform, with bifid clavate branches. Capsule oblong, 

 loculicidally 3-valved, Seeds globose or angled by pressure. — Rootstock 

 a small corm, with membranous tunics. Leaves setaceous, multifarious. 

 Spathe of 2 lanceolate valves ; outer or both firm, green, lanceolate. 

 Flowers various in colour, only one to a spathe. 



