MORAEA IRIDIOIDES.

Cape Province, Transvaal, Natal.

Irideae. Tribe Moraeeae.

Moraea, Linn.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. iii. p. 688.

Moraea iridioides, Linn. Mant. 28; Fl. Cap. vol. vi. p. 25.

This is one of the largest and most handsome species in the genus and is frequently cultivated in South African gardens. Thunberg appears to have been the first collector of this plant; he gathered his specimens near the Zeekoe River in Humansdorp Division about 1772, but the species was known in England before then, as there is a record of Miller having it in cultivation in 1758. The first figure of the species appeared in the Botanical Magazine in 1804 and it has been figured several times since. The present illustration was made from specimens growing in the garden of the Natal Herbarium, Durban.

Description:—A perennial plant with short underground rhizomes. Leaves crowded in dense fan-shaped basal rosettes, 0·6-1·3 metres long, 1-2 cm. broad, linear, acute, equitant at the base, glabrous. Peduncles equalling or exceeding the leaves. Inflorescence corymbose. Spathe-valves 2, about 6·5 cm. long, obtuse, tightly folded; the outer smaller than the inner. Perianth-segments 5-6 cm. long, 2-3 cm. broad, obovate, obtuse, clawed at the base; the 3 outer segments with an orange-yellow keel, densely pilose at the base; the 3 inner segments narrower, with dark markings above the claw. Ovary ellipsoid. Stigmas purple, lanceolate, 2-lobed. Fruit 5 cm. long, 1·7 cm. in diameter, ellipsoid; valves coriaceous. Seeds discoid.