Plate 190.
Reading edition
HAEMANTHUS ALBIFLOS. Cape Province. Amaryllidaceae. Tribe Amarylleae. Haemanthus, Linn.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. iii. p. 730.
Haemanthus albiflos, Jacq. Hort. Schoenbr. i. 31, t. 59; Fl. Cap. vol. vi. p. 235.
This species of Haemanthus was known to European horticulturists almost 150 years ago and was first shown in colour by Jacquin in 1797. In the Botanical Magazine it was again figured in 1810 (Plate 1239) from plants which flowered in the greenhouse of Messrs. Lee and Kennedy of Hammersmith. The plant has been recorded from the Uitenhage, Graaf Reinet and Somerset East Divisions of the Cape Province, but does not appear to have been extensively collected. In general habit H. albiflos resembles H. natalensis figured in Plate 32, but the leaves are thicker and more fleshy.
The species responds well to proper cultivation and has been successfully grown at the Division of Botany, Pretoria. It was from plants grown at Pretoria that our Plate was prepared.
Description:—Bulb tunicated, 4·5 cm. in diameter; tunics fleshy, white becoming green. Leaves 4, contemporary with the flowers, 42 to 46 cm. long, 10 cm. broad at the widest part, tongue-shaped, obtuse, narrowed to the base, with ciliated margins, dark green on the upper surface, paler on the lower surface. Peduncle 16 cm. long, 1·3 cm. in diameter, erect, compressed, glabrous. Inflorescence a dense umbel, 2·5 cm. in diameter. Involucral-bracts 5, ascending, white with 6 to 9 distinct green nerves, short mucronate, ciliated with reflexed hairs. Pedicels 4 to 5 mm. long, glabrous. Flowers white. Perianth-tube subcylindric, glabrous; segments 1·7 cm. long, linear, obtuse. Stamens 6; filaments subulate; anthers versatile. Ovary globose, 3 mm. in diameter; style subulate; stigma minutely tricuspidate. (National Herb., Pretoria, No. 2933.)
Plate 190.—Fig. 1, whole plant, much reduced; Fig. 2, single flower; Fig. 3, involucral bract.
F.P.S.A., 1925.
