Plants -- South Africa -- Periodicals; Plants -- South Africa -- Pictorial works -- Periodicals
This plant is a variety of the Cape “Kalkoentje” (_Gladiolus alatus_),
and might conveniently be called the “Namaqua Kalkoentje.” This
particular variety has been known for almost 200 years, and in the
Banksian Herbarium in the British Museum is a well-preserved specimen
which was collected by Masson in Namaqualand. A figure of the plant
prepared from specimens which flowered in England was published in the
_Botanical Magazine_ in 1801.
In the veld groups of plants are usually found together, each forming a
corm which has developed as an offshoot from the parent corm. This
character would render the plant easy of propagation.
We are indebted to Mrs. E. Rood of van Rhynsdorp for specimens which
were received by the Division of Botany in September, 1921. They are
preserved in the National Herbarium, Pretoria (Herb. No. 1468).
DESCRIPTION:--_Corm_ covered with fibrous tunics. _Stem_ with a basal
sheath 2·5-3·5 cm. long. _Leaves_ four, decreasing in size upwards; the
outermost leaf 13-15 cm. long, 2·5-3 cm. broad; upper leaves 7-12 cm.
long, ·5-2·1 cm. broad, all lanceolate, acuminate, clasping and equitant
at the base, 5-nerved, with reddish margins; the innermost almost wholly
clasping. _Visible peduncle_ about 11 cm. long, 3-flowered.
_Outer-bracts_ 4 cm. long, 2 cm. broad, boat-shaped, acuminate, sharply
keeled, with keel and margins reddish-brown; inner similar to the outer
but bifid at the apex. _Perianth-tube_ 1 cm. long, cylindric below,
campanulate above; upper segments 2·5 cm. long, 2·2 cm. broad, ovate,
subacuminate; 2 lower segments 2 cm. long, 5 mm. broad above, obovate,
narrowed into a long linear claw; the lowermost segment 1·1 cm. broad,
ovate, subacuminate. _Filaments_ 1·5 cm. long, cylindric; anthers 1·3
cm. long, linear. _Ovary_ 8 mm. long, 2·5 mm. in diameter, narrowly
ellipsoid; style 3 cm. long, filiform; lobes 5 mm. long, linear,
slightly broadened above, rounded and bifid at the apex.
* * * * *
PLATE 63.--Fig. 1, corm; Fig. 2, lower perianth-segment; Fig. 3,
lateral perianth segment; Fig. 4, stamens, front and side view;
Fig. 5, style and stigmas.
F.P.S.A., 1922.
[Illustration: _64._
S. Gower del.]
PLATE 64.
GAZANIA PYGMAEA.
_Transvaal._
* * * * *
COMPOSITAE. Tribe ARCTOTIDEAE.
GAZANIA, _Gaertn._; _Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant._ vol. ii. p. 459.
* * * * *
=Gazania pygmaea=, _Sond. in Linnaea_, vol. xxiii. p. 69; _Fl. Cap._ vol.
iii. p. 478.
* * * * *
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