NOVITATES AFRICANS 
21 
filaments free from each other; style-branches bifid, alternating with the 
stamens, ovules numerous. 
A perennial glabrous herb, usually mucilaginous within the axils, 09 
1-20 met. high; corms persistent, so many as 20 superposed; depressed- 
globose, the older ones bare striate, the younger ones densely covered with 
fibrous tunics, 2'5 cm. diam.; stem arising from the hud of the persistent 
green leaf of the previous year, somewhat fistular, compressed below and 
very narrowly winged, terete above and wingless, bearing 3 — 4 foliaceous 
sheaths up to 20 cm. long at the base, the fully developed leaf solitary erect 
rigid, laxly twisted, linear, gradually tapering towards the apex, closely and 
inconspicuously nerved, attaining a length of l - 20 met., 1 cm. broad, 
followed by 2 — 3 distant foliaceous sheaths gradually passing off into the 
chartaceous bracts ; flowers handsome solitary, terminal on the primary, 
secondary, tertiary and quaternary branches, forming a somewhat lax 
cymose panicle 25 — 40 cm. in length, with ascending or suberect branches, 
4 — 9 cm. long : spathes at the base of the branches small somewhat scale- 
like, those immediately below the flowers herbaceous in the lower half, 
chartaceous round the margin, 0'8 — 1 cm. long, the exterior ones ovate- 
triangular acute, the interior broader, widened and rounded towards the 
apex ; perianth tube cylindrical, a little dilated upwards, 0'7 cm. long, 
segments alike, oval obtuse, apiculate below the apex 2'5 cm. long ; stamens 
24 cm. long ; anthers linear, sagittate at base 0 - 8 cm. long ; style filiform, the 
branches truncate. 
Most nearly allied to Wcitsonia from which it differs in having the 
flowers arranged in a cymose panicle, the tube of the perianth very short, 
the stamens equilateral, and the large number of persistent corms. 
A specimen of this plant in the Kew Herbarium sent by Prof. MacOwan 
in 1888, was named by Mr Baker Tritonia Templemanni ; but the presence 
of bifid style-branches and equilateral stamens exclude it from the genus 
Tritonia. 
I have much pleasure in naming this plant after Mr N. S. Pillans. 
( To be continued) 
