Urginea Burkei, Baker; Fl. Cap. vol. vi. p. 469.
This species of Urginea is well known to the farmers of the Transvaal under the common name of “Transvaal Slangkop,� owing to the somewhat striking resemblance of the young inflorescence to a snake’s head. The plant is extremely poisonous to stock, and in early spring many fatalities are reported. For a fuller account of this plant see Bulletin No. 7, 1922, of the Union Department of Agriculture. Burke first collected the species on the Magaliesberg about 1830, but it remained undescribed until Baker published his description in the Flora Capensis in 1896.
The specimen figured on the accompanying Plate was grown and flowered in the garden of the Division of Botany, Pretoria.
Description:—Bulb globose, tunicated, about 7 cm. in diameter. Leaves about 26 cm. long, about 1 cm. broad, linear. Peduncle 17 cm. long, terete. Inflorescence a cylindric raceme, 17 cm. long. Pedicels ascending; the lower 1 cm. long. Bracts small, oblong, subacuminate, membranous, spurred at the base, deciduous. Perianth 1 cm. long; segments oblong-lanceolate, white with a brown keel. Stamens shorter than the perianth-segments. Ovary 4 mm. long, obtusely trigonous; style 3·5 mm. long. (National Herb. Pretoria, No. 2647.)[{76}]
Plate 138.—Fig. 1, surface view of flower; Fig. 2, perianth-segment with stamen; Fig. 3, pistil; Fig. 4, bract.
F.P.S.A., 1924.