Plate 45. 

 WATSONIA Galpinii. 



Cape Province. 



Ieidaceae. Tribe Ixieae. 

 Watsonia, Mill. ; Benfh. et Hooh.f. Gen. Plant, vol. viii. p. 705. 



Watsonia Galpinii, L. Bolus. Ann. Bolus Herb. vol. iii. p. 11. 



We have pleasure in figuring in this number, through the 

 kindness of the Curator of the Bolus Herbarium, our first 

 species of one of the most popular of South African genera, 

 namely, Watsonia. Species of this genus have long been 

 known in European Gardens, where they were introduced by 

 the early botanical collectors from the Cape. The genus is 

 represented in South Africa by about twenty species, and 

 with the exception of a species which occurs in Madagascar, 

 are confined to the sub-continent. The Watsonias lend 

 themselves to hybridising, and some very fine garden hybrids 

 have been produced. 



The species here figured was first discovered by Mr. E. E. 

 Galpin at Lottering Bush, Zitzikama (Galpin No. 4698), and 

 re-collected at Knysna by Miss A. V. Duthie, who sent corms 

 to the National Botanic Gardens, where they flowered in 

 March, 1919 (No. 239/18). 



The general name of "pijpie" is applied to almost all 

 species of Watsonia and also to some species of Gladiolus. 



Description : — Conn 2 cm. in diameter, depressed-globose, 

 oblique at the base. Stem 75 cm. long, racemose. Leaves 4-8, 

 radical, up to 35 cm. long, 1-1 - 5 cm. broad, linear, acute, 

 acuminate, with the median and marginal nerves somewhat 

 subprominent. Inflorescence simple or branched. Spathe- 

 valves herbaceous or submembranous at the apex ; the outer 

 # 6-3 # 2 cm. long, lanceolate, setaceous acuminate ; the inner 

 0*8-1 *4 cm. long, ovate or broadly ovate, acuminate. Perianth- 

 tube 2 cm. long, constricted about the middle ; the lower half 

 filiform, scarcely 1*5 mm. in diameter ; the upper half infundi- 

 buliform, 7 mm. in diameter near the throat ; lobes spreading, 



