CYRTANTHUS SANGUINEUS.

Cape Province, Transkei, Natal.

Amaryllideae. Tribe Amarylleae.

Cyrtanthus, Ait.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. iii. p. 729.

Cyrtanthus sanguineus, Hook. in Bot. Mag. t. 5218; Fl. Cap. vol. vi. p. 227.

This species was imported into England from Kaffraria by Messrs. Backhouse, and presented by them to the Horticultural Society of London in 1846. Two years later, in the Journal of the Society, Dr. Lindley described the plant, and the description was accompanied by a woodcut. In 1860 a plant flowered in the greenhouse at Kew, and was figured and described in the Botanical Magazine, t. 5218, by Hooker. The specimens from which the present illustration was made were gathered by Miss K. A. Lansdell at Krantzkloof, Natal. The plant is known as the “Kei Lily.”

Description:—Bulb about 4·5 cm. long, ovoid, produced into a distinct neck, with parchment-like scales. Leaves 1-4, contemporary with the flowers, 22-30 cm. long, ·5-2 cm. broad, linear, obtuse, narrowed more or less suddenly in the lowermost third to form a petiole, glabrous. Peduncle 12-26 cm. long, bearing 1-2 flowers. Spathes two, 4-6·5 cm. long, tapering into a long appendage from a broadened base. Pedicels up to 2 cm. long, glabrous. Perianth-tube 4-6 cm. long, campanulate in the upper half, cylindric in the lower half; lobes 4 cm. long, 1·8 cm. broad, ovate, acuminate, acute, with the apices of the outer lobes inflexed and forming a small hood. Stigmas with minute papillae on their inner faces.

Plate 25.—Fig. 1, portion of apex of perianth-lobe; Fig. 2, upper portion of style showing stigmas.

F.S.P.A., 1921.