PLATE 341. 
CrrtantHus sancuinzus, Hook. (Fl. Cap. Vol. VI., p. 227.) 
Natural Order, AMARYLLIDEA. 
A bulbous plant with large brilliant scarlet flowers. Bulb ovoid, up to 3 
inches diameter, tunics brown, thin, papery. Leaves 3-4, contemporary with the 
flowers, lanceolate, acute, entire, glabrous, 8 to 12 inches long, reaching to 1 inch 
broad in centre, tapering gradually to a compressed petiole, 3 to 5 inches long. 
Peduncles one or more to a balb, terete or compressed, fistulose, pale green, reach- 
ing to 18 inches long. Flowers solitary or 2 or 3 to an umbel, scentless ; pedicels 
4 to 2 inches long; spathe valves, 2 to 4, lanceolate, withering, 1 to 3 inches long. 
-Perianth 3 to 5 inches long, tube slender, cylindical and green in lower portion, 
which is usually a little curved, then gradually widening to throat and becoming 
scarlet, throat 3 to | inch diameter, interior with 6 dark Jines, from throat to base 
of the widened part of the tube; segments 6, oblong-lanceolate, recurved equalling 
- the tube, 4 inch wide to centre, the outer ones minutely cucullate at apex. Stamens 
6, inserted on perianth tube a little below the sinuses, free portion of the filaments 
4 inch long, arcuate, incurved ; anthers oblong, dorsifixed, versatile. Ovary oblong 
subtrigonous, 3-celled, ovules many, superposed; style longer than the stamens, 
filiform ; stigmas 3, recurved. Ripe seeds not seen. 
Habitat: Nara: Coast and midlands to at least 2000 feet alt; Inanda, 1800 
‘feet alt, Wood; Lower Umzimkulu, 300 feet alt, Woud. Also in Galla country, 
East Tropical Africa, Wakefield. 
Drawn and described from specimens flowered at Botanic Gardens, Durban, 
February, 1904. 
This is one of the largest flowered and handsomest of the genus, and is now 
becoming a favourite in cultivation. It is usually found in rocky ground, and often 
in crevices of perpendicular rocks. At one time it was common near Durban, but 
the bulbs have been carried off by visitors, so that it has almost if not quite dis- 
appeared from the locality. It is a suitable plant for hanging baskets, where its 
brilliantly coloured flowers are very conspicuous. The genus-contains about 20 
species, all natives of Africa, one of these is in tropical, and all the others in South 
Africa. 
Fig. 1, apex of outer perianth lobe; 2, style and stigmas; 8, stamen, side 
view ; 4, same, back view; 5, longitudinal section of ovary; all enlarged. 
