Plate 80.
KLATTIA Stokoei.
Cape Province.
Iridaceae. Tribe Sisyrinchieae.
Klattia, B. Kr.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. iii. p. 702.
Klattia Stokoei, L. Guthrie in Annals Bolus Herb. vol. iii. p. 76.
The discovery of this remarkable plant by Mr. T. P. Stokoe on the Hottentot’s Holland Mountains, near Somerset West, adds another species to one of the South African endemic genera, which hitherto has been regarded as monotypic. Klattia partita, found by Bowie, Thunberg, and Burchell, is a rare plant, and is only known from the Langebergen near Swellendam. It is figured by Marloth in “The Flora of South Africa,” t. 41. Our present species differs from K. partita in the more spreading leaves, the very much shorter perianth-tube, the narrower segments which have a red limb, and the larger capsule. The genus Klattia is closely related to Witsenia, which we figured on plate 34, but is distinguished from this genus by having a very short perianth-tube and long segments, much longer than the tube. Klattia was named in honour of Dr. F. W. Klatt, a teacher at Hamburg, who published several memoirs on the Iridaceae.
Specimens are preserved in the National Herbarium, Pretoria (Herb. No. 1436).