13 



PLATE 236. 



Gladiolus inandensis, Baker (Fl. Cap. Vol. vi., p. 144.) 

 Natural Order, Iridb^. 



A low growing, gregarious plant, bearing few flowered racemes of whitish 

 flowers with red keel. Corm globose, f-1 inch diameter, orange coloured with 

 tunics of fine parallel fibres, which are connected by a delicate membrane, glabrous 

 and shining outside, duller inside. Leaves 1, or several to each corm, linear, as 

 long as, or a little longer than the flowering stem ; glabrous. Flowering stem 

 simple, 1-1^ foot long, glabrous, with 8-5 sheathing leaves, the lowermost one 

 often with a long point, others acute. Flowers 6-10 in a lax secund spike ; outer 

 S|)athe-valve, green, oblong-lanceolate ; -| inch long. Perianth funnel-shaped, 

 tube curved, -^ inch long, segments obscurely cuspidate, -|--| inch long ; white with 

 red keel outside, the upper one obovate, ^ inch broad, lower oblong, clawed. 

 Stamens 3, reaching half way up the limb. 



Habitat: Natal: Midlands. Inanda, 1 ,800 feet altitude, August, Wood, Nos. 

 177,287; near Boiha's Hill, 1,800 feet altitude, October, Wood; near Gillitt's, 

 1,900 feet altitude. Wood No. 7947. 



Drawn and described from Wood's No. 7947. 



The genus Gladiolus, ace )rding to the Flora Capensis, includes about 140 

 species, 8 1 of which are foimd in South Africa, and 41 in Tropical Africa, one only 

 ' f the Tropical African species reaches to South Africa. In N atal we have nearly 

 or quite 20 species, many of which are well worth cultivation, and some of them 

 are already cultivated in Europe. Numerous hybrids of these plants have been 

 reared and are very ornamental. 



The species here described was, until the publication of F. Cap. Vol. vi., sup- 

 posed to be G. brevifolius, Jacq, to which plant it is nearly allied, but G. brevi- 

 folius appears to be confined to the Cape Colony. 



Fig. 1, a flower; 2, stamens front and back view; 3, style and stigmas; all 

 enlarged. 



