Plate 125.
GLADIOLUS LUDWIGII var. CALVATUS.
Transvaal.
Iridaceae. Tribe Gladioleae.
Gladiolus, Linn.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. iii. p. 709.
Gladiolus Ludwigii, Pappe. var. calvatus, Baker Fl. Cap. vol. vi. p. 150.
This Gladiolus belongs to the same section of the genus as G. Rehmanni, figured on Plate 20. The variety calvatus has up to the present only been recorded from the Pretoria and Barberton Districts of the Transvaal, but the species is a native of Natal, East Griqualand and the Transkei. The specimens from which our illustration was made were collected by Dr. I. B. Pole Evans, C.M.G., at Brits, and were found growing in deep black turf soil. The variety is also figured in the Botanical Magazine, t. 6291, and a comparison of that plate with the one reproduced here will show a difference in the colouring of the flowers, but Dr. Pole Evans states that the pale yellow and speckled forms grow together and are undoubtedly the same. The yellow-flowered form was introduced into cultivation in England in 1877, and both this and our plant differ from the species in being glabrous.
Description:—Plant about 1 m. high. Old corm 4 cm. in diameter, 1·5 cm. thick, disc-like; new corm more or less globose on the old corm. Produced leaves about 5, the longest up to almost 1 m. long, the free portion of uppermost leaf about 30 cm. long; all 0·8-1·8 cm. broad, strap-shaped, narrowing to the apex, acute or obtuse, equitant at the base, 12-15-nerved with the main nerves subprominent and with cartilaginous margins, glabrous. Inflorescence densely many-flowered, almost 30 cm. long. Outer spathe valve 3·7 cm. long, 2 cm. broad, ovate, acuminate, acute, 3-keeled below, with membranous margins, glabrous; inner spathe-valve very similar to the outer, but strongly 2-keeled. Perianth-tube 1·5 cm. long, slightly curved; the upper[{24}] perianth-lobe 4·2 cm. long, 1·8 cm. broad, elliptic, shortly apiculate; two upper lateral lobes 3·5 cm. long, 2 cm. broad, ovate-elliptic, shortly apiculate at the apex; lowermost lobe 3·2 cm. long, 1·3 cm. broad, elliptic-ovate, minutely apiculate; two lower lateral lobes 2·5 cm. long, 6 mm. broad, linear-oblong, apiculate. Filaments 1·2 cm. long, terete, glabrous; anthers 1·25 cm. long, linear, somewhat sagittate at the base. Style 2·5 cm. long, terete, glabrous; stigmas 8 mm. long, linear, broadening to the apex (National Herb. 2731).