Plate 120.
HESSEA rehmanni.
Transvaal.
Amaryllidaceae. Tribe Amaryllideae.
Hessea, Herb.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. iii. p. 720.
Hessea Rehmanni, Baker, Hanb. Amaryllid. 22; Fl. Cap. vol. vi. p. 190.
This species differs from the one we previously figured (H. Zeyheri, Plate 43) in not having a short perianth-tube above the ovary. The species here figured is evidently quite common in some localities in the High Veld, growing amongst the grass, but has not been extensively collected. Rehmann first found the plant on which Baker based his description, and it has since been found by Miss Saunders and Mr. E. E. Galpin near Johannesburg. Our illustration was made from specimens collected by Dr. I. B. Pole Evans, C.M.G., at Kaalfontein, between Pretoria and Johannesburg.
Baker in his description mentions that the pedicels are strongly angled, but we suspect that is solely due to drying, as in the fresh material the pedicels are quite terete.
Like many other plants belonging to the Amaryllidaceae, the seeds may commence germination before falling from the capsule.
As far as we are aware the species has no common name, and we would suggest “wit sambrieltje” for this little plant.
Description:—Bulb 1·8 cm. long, 1·5 cm. in diameter, globose, covered with papery tunics and produced into a neck about 1 to 1·5 cm. long. Leaves usually one, more rarely two, 9 cm. long, filiform, quite terete or with a shallow channel, glabrous. Peduncle 15 cm. long, terete, glabrous. Inflorescence a centripetal umbel of about nine flowers. Spathe-valves 2 mm. long, ovate, acute. Pedicels 8 mm. long, terete, glabrous. Perianth-segments 8 mm. long, 1·5 mm. broad, linear, much crisped, with 3 segments minutely and bluntly apiculate and with papillae at the apex. Filaments attached to base of perianth-segments, 5 mm. long, terete; anthers 1 mm. long, orbicular, basifixed. Ovary 2·5 mm. in diameter, globose, glabrous with a single ovule in each cell; style 7 mm. long, terete; stigmas 3, papillose. (National Herb. Pretoria, No. 2713.)