THE GENUS AGAPANTHUS. 



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THE GENUS AGAPANTHUS, WITH A DESCRIPTION OF 



A. INAPERTUS* 



By A. Worsley, F.R.H.S. 



This genus has been considered monotypic,* but I think that, even 

 if we restrict our observations to the forms grown in British gardens, 

 we find at least two (if not three) distinct types. Among the forms 

 known in our gardens we find that some are evergreen, some deciduous ; 

 some have stems a few inches in length, others are acaulescent ; some 

 have creeping rootstocks several inches to a foot long, others have 

 not ; some have more or less erect flowers, others are drooping ; 

 some have short, open funnel-shaped tubes, others longer campanulate 

 tubes ; and some have widely-expanded flowers, whilst in other cases 

 the flowers are semi-patent. These differences are in themselves 

 enough to throw grave doubt on the monotypic character of the 

 genus. 



I have raised more than a thousand seedling Agapanthi from 

 several dozen different garden types of A . umbellatus, A . Mooreanus, 

 and from the hybrid between them raised by Mr. Scheubel, and I 

 have found that these various forms reproduce themselves from seed 

 with great constancy. None of them has produced any of the 

 characters peculiar to A . inapertus, and hence I think it is clear that 

 the latter plant is specifically distinct from A. umbellatus. 



Among the forms of Agapanthus which I cultivate I can distinguish 

 nine without considering colour varieties : 



(1) A. umbellatus. — An evergreen plant with large wide 

 leaves, and open-funnel-shaped sub-erect widely expanded 

 flowers. This includes the A. Leichtlini of gardens. 



(2) A. Mooreanus. — A deciduous plant with smaller leaves 

 and flowers, the latter very widely expanded and even recurved, 

 and with shorter tubes. 



(3) A. hybrida (of Scheubel). — A fertile hybrid between (1) and 

 (2), and fairly equipoised between them. It is deciduous, and is 

 heavily coloured blue or purple on the short stem. 



(4) Crosses between (1) and (3) are fairly equipoised, are 

 heavily coloured on the short stem, and are all evergreen. 



(5) A. inapertus. — A deciduous plant with creeping rootstock, 

 short leaves, a tall scape of drooping semi-patent flowers with 

 long campanulate tube and short pedicels. 



* G. Beauverd in Bui. Soc. Bot. Genive, Vol. II. (1910), with fig. ; Syn. I. 

 A . Weillighi (hort.) . The author admits 3 species and 4 varieties in the genus. 

 He classes them thus — A. inapertus [Beauverd sp. nov.] ; A. africanus [Hoff- 

 mannsegg, Ver. Pflanzenculturen, 35 (1824)]; and A. caulescens [Sprenger ex 

 Wittmack Gartenfiora, 50. 21 et 281, cum tab. 1487 (1901)]. 



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