Amaryllidaceae. Tribe Amarylleae.
Strumaria, Jacq.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. iii. p. 728.
Strumaria truncata, Jacq. Ic. ii. t. 357; Fl. Cap. vol. vi. p. 216.
Strumaria is a small endemic South African genus, and five species have been described in the Flora Capensis, all of which have been figured by Jacquin in his Icones Plantarum Rariorum. Two of the species are recorded from Little Namaqualand, but no locality is known for the other three, nor do any specimens appear to exist in herbaria, Jacquin’s figures and descriptions being all we know about them. It is with particular pleasure, therefore, that we reproduce this illustration of a species of this little-known genus, and our readers are again indebted to Mrs. E. Rood of Van Rhynsdorp for sending us fresh material. Our plant differs slightly from Jacquin’s figure, inasmuch as the dilated portion of the style does not narrow towards the base and is irregularly lobed above, but on this account we do not feel justified in keeping it distinct from Strumaria truncata.
Strumaria truncata is a charming little plant with an umbel of white, sweet-smelling flowers, faintly tinged with pink (the Flora Capensis states flowers “inodorous�). The bulbs received from Mrs. Rood are being grown at the Division of Botany, Pretoria, and we feel sure once the species becomes known it will be sought after by cultivators of our South African bulbs.
Description:—Bulb 3 cm. in diameter, globose or ovoid, covered with pale brown papery tunics, and produced into a distinct neck up to 3·5 cm. long. Leaves 4-6, arising from a sheath, 2·2-4·5 cm. long, 1·2 cm. broad, oblanceolate or oblong (strap-shaped), rounded at the apex, glabrous. Leaf-[{32}]sheath 1·5-2 cm. in diameter, funnel-shaped, truncate, fleshy, reddish. Peduncle lateral, 15-23 cm. long, terete, glabrous. Spathe-valves reddish, 2-3·2 cm. long, longer or shorter than the pedicels. Pedicels slender, 1·2-2 cm. long, glabrous. Inflorescence 13-25-flowered; flowers white, faintly but sweet-scented. Segments 1 cm. long, 3·6 mm. broad, lanceolate, obtuse. Filaments connate into a tube for 5 mm., then free for 7 mm., erect, glabrous; anthers 2·5 mm. long, oblong, versatile. Ovary 1·5 mm. long, globose, glabrous, with about 5 ovules in each cell; style dilated, sharply 3-angled below and united with filaments; free part of style 5·5 mm. long, terete; stigma minutely 3-fid (National Herb., Pretoria, 2729).
Plate 127.—Fig. 1, median longitudinal section of the flower; Fig. 2, a perianth segment; Fig. 3, style, showing the dilated 3-angled lower portion of the 3 stigmas; Fig. 4, a stamen.
F.P.S.A., 1924.