MARY GUNN LIBRARY

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FREDERICK ZIEVOGEL van der MERWE

THE FLOWERING PLANTS OF

SOUTH AFRICA.

A MAGAZINE CONTAINING HAND-COLOURED FIGURES WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF THE

FLOWERING PLANTS INDIGENOUS TO SOUTH AFRICA.

EDITED BY

E. P. PHILLIPS, M.A., D.Sc., F.R.S.(S. Afr.),

Chief, Division of Botany and Plant Pathology, Department of Agriculture and Forestry, Pretoria;

and Director of the Botanical Survey of the Union of South Africa*

VOL. XXIV

The veld which lies so desolate and bare

Will blossom into cities white and fair,

And pinnacles will pierce the desert air,

And sparkle in the sun.

R. C. Macfie's “Ex Unitate Vires.”

L. REEVE & CO., Ltd.,

SANKEY HOUSE, BROOK, ASHFORD, KENT

SOUTH AFRICA:

J. L. VAN SCHAIK LTD.

P.O. BOX 724, PRETORIA

1944.

All rights reserved

MARY GUNN LIBRARY

NATIONAL BOTANICAL INSTITUTE

PRIVATE BAG X 101

PRETORIA 0001

REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN

FREDERICK ZIEVOGEL VAN DER MERWE

THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED IN RECOGNITION

OF HIS KEEN GENERAL INTEREST IN THE SOUTH

AFRICAN FLORA OVER A PERIOD OF MANY

YEARS DURING HIS WORK AS A MEDICAL

INSPECTOR OF SCHOOLS, AND ESPECIALLY IN

RECOGNITION OF HIS STUDIES ON THE GENUS

SC ILL A 9 MANY SPECIES OF WHICH HAVE BEEN

DESCRIBED BY HIM IN THE PAGES OF THIS

WORK.

Division of Botany and Plant Pathology, Pretoria.

October , 1944,

INDEX TO VOLUME XXIV

PLATE

ALOE CANDELABRUM 945

ALOE THRASKII 923

ANDROPOGON AMPLECTENS 922

BRACHYSTELMA FOETIDUM 940

BRUNIA ALBIFLORA 928

BULBLNELLA SETOSA 930

CARALLUMA PILLANSII 931

CEROPEGIA CRASSIFOLIA 924

CEROPEGIA FORTUITA 925

CHIRONIA HUMILIS 951

CHORTOLIRION STENOPHYLLUM . . . .932

DIPCADI OLIGOTRICHUM 934

DIPCADI TORTILE 956

DISPERIS MACOWANI 929

DRIMIOPSIS MACULATA 957

EUCOMIS HUMILIS 954

EUCOMIS POLE-EVANSII 953

EUCOMIS VANDERMERWEI 955

EULOPHIA PAPILLOSA 949

GERBERA DISCOLOR 938

G YMNOSTEPHIUM CORYMBOSUM . . . .952

INDIGOFERA BURKEANA 939

LACHENALIA GLAUCINA 950

LASIOSIPHON CAPITATUS 937

PLECTRANTHUS SPICIFORMIS 946

PLECTRANTHUS TOMENTOSUS 960

PROTEA AMPLEXICAULIS 921

PROTEA MELLIFERA 936

RETZIA CAPENSIS 942

SCHIZOCHILUS STRICTUS 941

SCILLA ALBOMARGINATA 947

SCILLA ASPERIFOLIA 944

SCILLA CARNOSULA 958

SCILLA COOPERI 943

SCILLA ELEVANS 948

SCILLA FIRMIFOLIA 926

SCILLA STENOPHYLLA 959

STAAVIA GLUTINOSA 927

STENOGLOTTIS LONGIFOLIA 933

TULBAGHIA LUDWIGIANA 935

GENERAL INDEX

TO THE

FLOWERING PLANTS OF

SOUTH AFRICA

VOLS. I-XXIV, 1921-1944

PREPARED UNDER DIRECTION OF THE EDITOR,

R. ALLEN DYER

CHIEF, DIVISION OF BOTANY AND PLANT PATHOLOGY,

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, PRETORIA, AND DIRECTOR OF THE

BOTANICAL SURVEY OF THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA

In Volume 12 an index to the first twelve volumes was included. In

this, the twenty-fourth Volume, it seems desirable to include an index to

the first twenty-four volumes. An additional reason for compiling a com-

plete index at this stage, is the decision to continue the work from Volume

25 under the title Flowering Plants of Africa. This step is designed to

give a wider scope to the publication and generally to foster a Pan-African

botanical outlook.

It was inevitable that some name changes would occur for plants figured

in these pages, but it is not possible to discuss here the standing of each

name. In a very few cases, however, footnotes to the index indicate

important name changes. Other corrections and modifications in nomen-

clature have already been referred to in the text of the work itself. The

compilation of a complete list of errata will be a task for the future.

FLOWERING PLANTS OF

SOUTH AFRICA

INDEX TO VOLUMES 1—24

3

4

INDEX

1 Form of A. Boylei.

2 = A. nitons Bak.

INDEX

5

1 Correct description but plate is Ammocharis coranica MiLne-Redhead & Schw. in

J oum. Linn. Soc. Bot. Oct. 1939.

6

INDEX

INDEX

7

Diplocyatha ciliata

Disa Begleyi

crassicornis ...

extinctoria

Forficaria

Galpinii

lacera ...

picta ...

PiUansii

rhodantha

saxicola

triloba

Disperis anthoceros

Cooperi

disaeformis

Fanniniae

MacOwani

micrantha

Tysonii

Disphyma crassifolium...

Dolichos gibbosus

Drimia alta

Drimiopsis maculata ...

Drosera regia

Duvalia maculata

modesta

parviflora

radiata

transvaalensis

Echinops amplexicaulis

Echinus apiculatus

Ehretia hottentotica ...

Erepsia restiophylum ...

viridis ...

Erica blenna var. grandi-

flora

coralliflora

MacOwanii

Erythrina acanthocarpa

cafira ... ... ...

Humeana

Erythrophysa trans-

vaalensis

Eucomis humilis

8

INDEX

INDEX

9

10

INDEX

1 Dietes grandiflora Brown in Joum. Linn. Soc. Bot. 1929

INDEX

11

12

INDEX

1 P. caffra Meisn. (not P. abyssinica). 2 Zantedeschia, see plate 735.

INDEX

13

1 Stultitia, see plate 520.

14

INDEX

92!

Plate 921.

PROTEA AMPLE XIC AULIS .

Cape Province.

Pkoteaceae.

Protea amplexicaulis ( Salisb .) R. Br. in Trans. Linn. Soe. 10, 95

(1811) ; Phillips & Stapf in FI. Cap. 5, 1, 608 (1912).

One of the most interesting features of this plant is the

production of practically stalkless flowers towards the base of

the branches. This is characteristic of the small section

Hypocephalae, comprising 5 species, to which Protea amplexi-

caulis R. Br. belongs. No other member has yet been figured

in this work. Another unusual character shown in P. amplexi-

caulis is an underground main stem, only the branches rising

above ground. The branches spread more or less horizontally,

giving the plant a straggling appearance. As regards its

habit, Andrews made an interesting observation in his Botan-

ists Repository, when, in 1807, he figured the species under

the appropriate, though illegitimate, name Protea repens.

“ But so averse is it to this confined [tied erect] mode of treat-

ment, that, as soon as the branches are liberated, they in-

stantly take the direction most natural to them.” Owing to

the position of the flower-heads near the base of the branches,

P. amplexicaulis is unsuitable for display, but the somewhat

shaggy rufous bracts and shortly bearded lips have an attrac-

tion.

The two authorities, Salisbury (Parad. t. 67, 1806), and

Robert Brown (1811 1. c.), were not in complete agreement on

the circumscription of genera in the family Proteaceae, the

former having first described our plant as Erodendrum amplexi-

caule, and Brown, who is now generally followed, transferred

it to the genus Protea.

Miss P. Kies, who collected the material of Protea pulchra

figured on Plate 920, also collected the specimen used for the

present illustration. It was gathered in the south-western

Cape Province, in Bains Kloof, on the road from Paarl to

Worcester, where it is plentiful. The species extends east-

wards from there in mountainous situations into the Riversdale

district.

Description. — Main stem underground giving rise to one

or more aerial branches. Branches up to about 2 ft. long,

densely leafy, often freely rebranched, decumbent, glabrous,

with flower-heads towards the base. Leaves spreading, 2-5-

7-5 cm. long, 1 -5-3-5 cm. broad at the widest part, ovate,

ovate-lanceolate or lanceolate, acute, more or less amplexicaul,

palmately 5-8-nerved, glabrous, slightly glaucous. Flowering-

heads arising towards the base of the branches, 1 to several

on each branch, abruptly contracted into a short scaly peduncle

up to 7 cm. in diameter and somewhat less in length, almost

spherical in bud. Involucre-bracts 10-12 seriate, densely

pubescent with reddish-brown hairs, somewhat shaggy round

the tips; outer ovate; inner oblong. Receptacle slightly

conical, with small triangular bracteoles. Perianth-sheath

white, glabrous ; lip about 5 mm. long, 3-toothed with a small

apical beard. Filaments 0-5 mm. long, swollen; anthers

oblong-linear, 4 mm. long; apical gland 0-5 mm. long.

Ovary covered with long reddish-yellow hairs and with 3

linear-lanceolate scales 2-5 mm. long from the base; style

20 mm. long, falcate, gradually thickened to the base ; stigma

about 4 mm. long, very slightly kneed at the junction with the

style. (National Herbarium, Pretoria, No. 27,148.) — R. A.

Dyer.

Plate 921. — Fig. 1, flowering branch natural size;

with style enclosed in lijp x 3*5 ? 3j lip X 10; 4, anther x

6, stigma x 10; 7, habit.

F.P.S.A.. Jan. 1944.

2, perianth- sheath

9 ; 5, ovary x 6 ;

-

A.W.Barnell lith.

Plate 922.

ANDROPOGON AMPLECTENS.

South Africa, Tropical Africa.

Gramineae

Andropogon amplectens Nees, FI. Afr. Austr., 104 (1841); Stapf in

FI. Cap. 7, 342 (1898) and in FI. Trop. Afr. 9, 243 (1919).

Belonging to a genus that is widely represented in Africa,

Andropogon amplectens Nees is one of the most easily recog-

nised of the hundred or more known species. It is one of the

few South African grasses which may be identified without

any difficulty by its vegetative characters — a considerable

advantage, especially as it seldom flowers before midsummer.

The plant is covered with a waxy bloom in its early and

flowering stages, and is often suffused with red or purple.

It is the upper leaves, however, which are most distinctive.

Light blue-green in colour, they are broad and heart-shaped

at the base where they clasp the stem, and then rapidly taper

upwards into long, fine points. The only other veld grass

with which it may be confused is Cymbopogon excavatus

Stapf, but the characters are less marked here, its habit and size

are different, and, moreover, the strong, bitter taste and smell

of this “ Turpentine grass ” are not found in A. amplectens.

The habitat of “ Broad-leaved Blue grass,” as it is called,

varies to some extent. It occurs typically on dry open veld

and hillsides, but is also found in vleis and other moist situa-

tions. For a grass of such frequency it is a uniform species,

though the hairiness of the plant varies considerably. The

variety diversifolius Stapf, with broader-based leaves and a

more compound panicle, does not, so far as is known, extend

further south than Angola.

The figure was prepared from a specimen flowering on

Meintjies Kop, Pretoria, in April 1943.

Description. — A densely tufted perennial. Culms 60-120

cm. high, slender. Leaves glabrous or more rarely hairy;

leaf sheaths often purplish, terete, light ; ligules membranous,

short, truncate or rounded; blades glaucous, often suffused

with purple, linear from a wider rounded base ; those of the

culms amplexicaul and cordate or subcordate, tapering to a

long fine point, usually 10-25 cm. long and up to 2 cm. wide

at the base, flat or convolute above, glabrous or scantily hairy,

with the margins sometimes scabrid. Inflorescence consisting

of a terminal pair of racemes, occasionally 3; spathes pale

green, linear-lanceolate, long-tapering upwards, spatheoles

similar to the spathes ; peduncles at length exserted. Racemes

usually straight, one subsessile, the other with a short base;

pedicels about 6 mm. long, shortly ciliate along the margins,

with the tips produced into an oblique, slightly denticulate

cupule. Sessile sjpikelets green, often reddish towards the

tips, heterogamous (except the lowest of the subsessile raceme),

laterally compressed, wedged in between the pedicel and the

joint, glabrous, including the callus 7-9 mm. long; callus

acute, shortly bearded, up to 2 mm. long. Glumes equal;

lower acuminate, 2-toothed, with the keels rounded and

scabrid near the tips and with a distinct groove or fold between

them and 2 fine lateral furrows in the upper third; upper

subcoriaceous, 1 -nerved, with a mucro or short awn from the

tip. Valves 2; lower empty, lanceolate, 3-nerved, ciliate;

upper subtending a bisexual flower, linear-lanceolate, deeply

bifid with ciliate lobes ; awn stout, 3-5-5 cm. long, kneed and

pubescent below the middle. Pale 1, subtended by the upper

valve, linear-oblong, 2 mm. long, nerveless, ciliate. Lodicules

2. Anthers 3-4 mm. long. Pedicelled sjpikelets male, dorsally

compressed, lanceolate-acuminate, 9-12 mm. long. Lower

glume subherbaceous, many-nerved between the scabrid

keels, usually aristulate; upper linear-lanceolate, 3- sub- 5-

nerved, ciliate. Valves 2; lower empty, membranous,

linear-acuminate ; upper subtending the flower, similar to the

lower but shorter, 2-toothed, muticous. Pale 1, subtended by

the upper valve, about 1-5 mm. long, very delicate, mem-

branous, nerveless. Lodicules 2. Anthers 4-4-5 mm. long.

(National Herbarium, Pretoria, No. 27,140.) — L. Chippikdall.

Plate 922. — Fig. 1, part of leaf showing ligule; 2, part of raceme;

3, lower glume ; 4, upper glume ; 5, lower valve ; 6, upper valve ; 7, pale ;

8, ovary and lodicules ; (3-8, of sessile spikelet) ; 9, lower glume ; 10, upper

glume; 11, lower valve; 12, upper valve with anthers and lodicules; 13,

pale; (9—13, of pedicelled spikelet).

F.P.S.A., Jan. 1944.

923

'i&A

mii'S

E. K. Buries del.

A. W. Darnel] lith.

Plate 923.

ALOE THRASKII.

Cape Province, Natal.

Liliaceae.

Aloe Thraskii Baker in Journ. Linn. Soc. 18, p. 180 (1880) ; Baker in

FI. Cap. 6, 328 (1896-1897) ; Berger in Pfianzener. Aloineae 315 (1908).

This species of Aloe appears first to have been collected by

Thomas Cooper about 1862, probably from near Durban. It

is limited in its distribution to a very narrow strip of coastal

bush, just above high-water mark, all the way from Pondo-

land to Zululand and, together with Strelitzia augusta, is very

typical of Natal coastal scenery, flowering during the winter.

Its nearest allied neighbours geographically are A. candela-

brum and A. saponaria, which inhabit grassy slopes higher

up. When in bloom, the inflorescence is alive with bees,

attracted by the golden pollen and dark brown nectar of the

flowers. In the erect stance of its racemes and the prominent

anthers of the flowers, A. Thraskii most closely resembles

A. africana (see Plate 333) which, however, is distinguished

by a strongly curved perianth and longer stamens, and A.

ferox (see Plate 169) and A. candelabrum, both of which have

leaves less recurved and more spiny, and flowers usually red

or reddish-brown. From all these species it is also distin-

guished by its deeply canaliculate leaves. The yellow perianth

of A. Thraskii, with its short pedicels, gives the raceme a

compressed appearance, which, together with the canaliculate

and strongly recurved leaves, remotely suggests A. sessiliflora

(see Plate 180), which occurs further north along the east coast

at Lourenco Marques.

Description. — Stem up to about 2 m. high, unbranched,

normally covered by persistent dead leaves. Leaves forming

a dense head at the top of the stem, ensiform, strongly recurved

deeply canaliculate, up to 1 m. long and 15 cm. wide at their

base, with the upper and lower surfaces smooth, and the

margins coriaceous often reddish and supplied with spines at

regular intervals. Inflorescence much branched, axes vertically

wrinkled and supplied with a number of dried short wide

bracts at irregular intervals. Racemes erect, dense, up to

about 40 cm. long and 10 cm. in diameter, of a general

orange-yellow colour. Pedicle short, about 2 mm. long, sub-

tended by a dry veined bract which is triangular about 10

mm. long and 10 mm. wide at the base. Perigonium yellow,

clavate-cylindric, very slightly recurved, about 25 mm. long ;

segments connate for about one-third of their length, their

apices rounded, slightly recurved, greenish. Filaments and

style conspicuously exserted; anthers bright orange-yellow.

(F. v. d. Merwe 2655 in National Herbarium, Pretoria, No.

27,145.) — F. van der Merwe.

Plate 923. — Fig. 1, raceme and leaf x i; 2, flower x y ; 3, longitudinal

section of flower x 2 ; 4, bract x 2 ; 5, habit.

F.P.S.A., Jan. 1944.

924-

E. K. Burges del.

A. W. Darnell lith.

Plate 924.

CEROPEGIA CRASSIFOLIA.

Cape Province , Natal , O.F.S., Transvaal.

ASCLEPI AD ACE AE .

Ceropegia crassifolia Schlechter in Journ. Bot. 1895, 273, N. E. Brown

in FI. Cap. 4, 1 (1908).

The name Ceropegia crassifolia Schlechter is based on a

specimen collected by the late Dr. T. R. Sim near King

William’s Town in the eastern Cape Province. The typical

form has longer and proportionally narrower flowers than those

shown in the accompanying illustration, which was prepared

from a plant collected by Mr. F. G. Carnegie in 1942 in the

“ Valley of a Thousand Hills,” Natal. The drawing was made

at the Division of Botany and Plant Pathology when the plant

flowered in March of the following year.

There are two closely related species to C. crassifolia

which may be confused with it ; in fact, one of them at least,

C. crispata N. E. Br., described in the Flora Capensis (l.c.

p. 819), is probabty not worthy of specific distinction. Brown

distinguished it in the first place from C. crassifolia mainly

on the broader lanceolate leaves with undulate crisped margins,

but soon after the publication of his description a plant of C.

crassifolia with crisped leaves was received at Kew from the

type locality. It had been collected by C. A. Pym near King

William’s Town, and is now in the Albany Museum, Grahams-

town. On it is a note reading as follows : “ Ceropegia crassi-

folia. This is the first specimen with crisped leaves, which

Mr. Brown has seen. Unfortunately it arrived too late for

improving the key and description in the Flora Capensis.”

Plants from the Transvaal and Griqualand West agreeing

with the description of C. crispata have since been identified

at Kew as C. crassifolia Schlechter, so that the name C.

crispata may be regarded with confidence as a synonym.

The other related species is known as C. Thorncroftii

N. E. Br., first described and illustrated under tab. 8458 in

Curtis’s Botanical Magazine 1912. Brown likened it to his

C. crispata and distinguished it by its smaller flowers, with

gibbous projections at the middle of the keel on the inner

side of the corolla-lobes. The flowers of our plant show a

gibbous projection as in C. Thorncroftii which is not supposed

to be present in typical C. crassifolia. On the other hand, it

agrees closely with the latter in the narrow leaves and shape

of the corona. Further, I am of opinion that a study of

living material of C. crassifolia from the eastern Cape Province

would reveal some indication of a gibbous projection, since

even when present in living material it is not obvious in the

dried state, and Brown had only dried material for study.

Brown cites records in the Flora Capensis of C. crassifolia

extending from Uitenhage into Natal, so our plant comes

within the range of distribution as recognised by him.

Description. — Perennial climbing herb, up to 9 ft. tall in cultivation.

Roots fusiform. Stem growing annually from the rootstock, usually un-

branched, twining, 5-7 cm. thick near the base, glabrous, leafy below the

flowering portion. Leaves near the base subsessile, up to about 8 cm. long,

1- 5 cm. broad, 2-3 mm. thick, narrowly elliptic-lanceolate, fleshy, furrowed

down the upper surface and with the midrib very prominent on the lower

surface and with a few distinct cilia on the margin ; those above gradually

reduced in size on the inflorescence. Cymes lateral at the nodes, shortly

pedunculate, 3-7 flowered with the flowers developed successively ; peduncle

5-7 mm. long ; pedicels 5 mm. long. Corolla about 3-8 cm. long ; tube pale

green on the outer surface, with small dull purplish blotches, purplish- black

markings within the lobes, purplish-black striate within the tube, closely

purplish-black ribbed in the inflated basal portion and greenish at the base,

2- 5 cm. long, curved or nearly straight, with a globose inflation up to 9 mm.

diameter at the base, contracted to 4-5 mm. diameter above and gradually

expanded to the 8 mm. throat, glabrous outside, with long mainly deflexed

hairs within, but those towards the mouth straight and mainly purplish

while those above the glabrous inflated portion are white and crinkled;

lobes with their inner face closely reticulate with dark purple-brown, 1-3

cm. long, with replicate margins, connivent-erect, connate at the tips,

sparsely covered with long purple hairs on the basal part and on the gibbous

keel. Outer corona cup-shaped, overtopping the staminal-column, mostly

white with purple within the base, 2-5 mm. deep, with 5 short erect obtuse

emarginate lobes, very minutely pubescent on the margins; inner corona-

lobes dorsally fused to the inner surface of the outer corona, linear, connivent,

equal or shortly exceeding the anthers. (National Herbarium, Pretoria,

No. 27, 136.)— R. A. Dyer.

Plate 924 — Pig. 1 and 1 a, two lower leaves and part of flowering stem

natural size showing one flower on each raceme fully developed and one

slightly wilted ; 2, flower natural size ; 3, longitudinal section of flower x 1| ;

4, coronas x 8; 5, habit of rootstock.

F.P.S.A., Jan. 1944.

9 25

One of the closest affinities of C. fortuita is C. africana R.

Br., illustrated in the Botanical Register on plate 626 (1822).

Our plant may be distinguished from this by the colour of the

flowers, by the base of the corolla-lobes passing gradually into

the tube, and by the long purple hairs from the middle of the

inner surface of the corolla-lobes. C. fortuita may be even

more nearly related to C. linearis E. Mey., but this is imper-

fectly described. The preserved material, originally collected

by Drege over a century ago on sand-hills near the seashore

between Umtentu River and Umzimkulu River, is now devoid

of flowers, and it is hoped that the species may be rediscovered

in the type locality so that further comparison will be made

possible.

Description. — A perennial herb with a tuberous root and twining stems

up to about 1 m. tall. Tuber 3 cm. high, 5 cm. broad, convex at the base,

concave on top (sometimes small secondary tubers being formed near the

base of the stem). Stems branched above ground, glabrous. Leaves usually

about 2-5 cm. long, 1-25-1-5 cm. broad, with petioles 2-3 mm. long, ovate to

ovate-lanceolate, apiculate, slightly fleshy, somewhat deflexed, with a few

hairs on the upper surface along the margins and on the midrib below, with

midrib and two lateral veins impressed on the upper surface. Peduncles

lateral at the nodes, 3-4 mm. long, usually 2-flowered. Flowers developed

successively, subtended by lanceolate bracts 2-3 mm. long ; pedicels 3 mm.

long. Calyx-segments 3-4 mm. long, subulate or linear-lanceolate. Corolla in

bud with the lobes forming a beak narrower than the tube and the cohering

margins raised into slightly prominent ribs towards their base, purplish

outside, with the basal inflation lighter, but with 5 darker longitudinal ribs,

opening to about 3 cm. long ; tube purple-striped within, the inflated base

being almost entirely purple, 1*8-2 cm. long, 4 mm. in diameter at the in-

flated base, contracted to 1-5 mm. in the tube and expanded to a 2-5-mm.

throat, with long soft slightly deflexed white hairs within the narrow portion ;

lobes 1—1-2 cm. long, lanceolate-linear, united at the tips to form a narrow

cage-like structure about 4 mm. in diameter, minutely ciliate on the margins

towards the base and with longer dark purple hairs from the middle portion

of a central longitudinal rib on the inner surface ; margins slightly revolute

in the lowest £. Outer corona white, cup-like, about 1 mm. deep, with short

broad, slightly emarginate lobes; inner corona-lobes white, arising from

within the base of the outer corona-cup, 2-5 mm. long, linear, incumbent on

the backs of the anthers at the base, thence connivent erect.

Plate 925. — Pig. 1, flowering stems natural size ; 2 and 2a, leaf and cross

section natural size ; 3, flower x 2 ; 4, longitudinal section of flower x 2£;

5, corona x 10 ; 6, tuber natural size (it may be that the small tuber above

the original one was induced to develop because the latter was planted 1 in.

below ground-level, whereas they are usually found in nature nearer the

surface of the soil) ; 7, habit.

F.P.S.A., Jan. 1944.

Plate 925.

CEROPEGIA FORTUITA.

Natal.

ASCLEPIADACEAE.

Ceropegia fortuita R. A. Dyer, sp. nov., affinis C. africanae corolla®

colore et lobis basi vix prominentibus loborum intus medium versus pills

longis purpureis indutis differt.

Herba perennis. Tuber 3 cm. altum, 5 cm. diametro. Caulis volubilis,

tenuis, glaber. Folia plus minusve 2-5 cm. longa, 1-25-1 -5 cm. lata, ovata

vel ovato-lanceolata, apiculata, leviter carnosa, pilis paucis induta. Pedun-

culi ad nodos laterales, 3-4 mm. longi, plerumque 2-flori. Pedicelli 3 mm.

longi. Sepala 3-4 mm. longa, subulata vel lineari-lanceolata. Corollae

tubus 1-8-2 cm. longus, basi globoso-inflatus, 4 mm. diametro, intra purpureus

supra 1-5 mm. diametro, intra pilis longis indutus, ore leviter dilatato et

2-5 mm. diametro; lobi apice connati, 1-1-2 cm. longi, lanceolato-lineares,

marginibus basin versus leviter revolutis, extra glabri, intus e parte media

costae longitudinalis medianae pilis longis purpureis instructi, marginibus

minute ciliatis. Corona exterior alba, poculiformis, lobis brevibus quinque

emarginatis; coronae interioris lobi albi, 2-5 mm. longi, conniventi-erecti,

lineares.

Natal : Camperdown district, Valley of a Thousand Hills, Carnegie, in

National Herbarium, Pretoria, Nos. 20,132; 27,134 (type).

Mr. F. G. Carnegie, of Pietermaritzburg, first collected

tubers of Ceropegia fortuita about 1930. He recalls that he

had spent an afternoon on hands and knees in the Valley of

a Thousand Halls, vainly searching for a second specimen of

C. crassifolia (see Plate 924), and on the way home casually

pulled up a clump of Crassula sp., among whose roots a tuber

of an unknown species of Ceropegia was observed. Others

were found near at hand, some of which he sent to the late

Dr. T. N. Leslie. Dr. Leslie photographed a plant in flower

in March 1935, and presented a copy and specimens to the

National Herbarium, Pretoria. Miss E. A. Bruce, of Kew,

confirmed the general opinion that the plant probably repre-

sented an undescribed species. The chance discovery sug-

gested the specific name.

In August 1942 Mr. Carnegie collected more tubers from

the same locality, and the accompanying plate was prepared

when one of these flowered at the Division of Botany and

Plant Pathology, in January 1943.

^2d

Plate 926.

SCILLA FIRMIFOLIA.

Cape Province.

Liliaceae.

Scilla firmifolia Baker, Saund. Ref. Bot. 3, App. 7 (1870); FI. Cap.

6, 480 (1896-1897).

In the taxonomic consideration of the subgenus Euscilla

Baker, the species here figured is one of the most instructive

in exemplifying the difficulty of correlating South African

species with European groups. It resembles the European

S. autumnalis in having two ovules in each of the three chambers

of the ovary, whereas S. natalensis and S. Kraussii usually

have more. In this respect it also resembles the subgenus

Ledebouria (Roth.) Baker. In the texture and stance of its

perianth-segments, which are tinted a pale purple-pink on a

whitish, and not a greenish background, it resembles the genus

Schizocarphus ( Scilla rigidifolia Kunth, see plates 904-906).

In the habit of its inflorescence, which frequently branches

into two racemes, it differs from all known species of Scilla.

The above considerations seem to indicate that for the present

it is most conveniently retained in the subgenus Euscilla.

The plant here figured, flowered at the Division of Botany

and Plant Pathology, Pretoria, in January 1943. It was

collected by Dr. R. A. Dyer in 1936, from a dense patch about

\ mile south of Kaffir Drift, eastern Cape Province, in grass

amongst karroid scrub. The species has been recorded over

a wide area from Pondoland to the neighbourhood of Port

Elizabeth.

Description. — Bulb often in clusters of 6 or more, increas-

ing by division, firm, ovoid, up to about 4 cm. in diameter,

whitish, covered by a few dried leaves. Leaves up to 6,

spreading, ligulate-acuminate, up to 30 cm. long and 0*5 cm.

wide at their base, concave above. Inflorescence : scape 30-

40 cm. tall, sometimes branched below the main raceme, lax.

Pedicel 6-8 mm. long, subtended by a curved bract and

bracteole to one side of the bract; bracts linear-lanceolate,

the basal ones 1 cm. long, those higher up on the scape dimin-

ishing in size. Perianth-segments pale pinkish-mauve with a

darker mid-vein down the centre of each, spreading from the

base, about 5 mm. long; the outer segments about 2 mm.

broad; the inner ones slightly narrower; all contracted and

slightly hooded at the apex, with a minute tuft of hairs within.

Filaments united near their base, attached to the perianth-

segments about 0*5 mm. from the base, 3-5 mm. long, gradually

narrowed toward their tips. Ovary about 1-5 mm. in dia-

meter, and the same in height, broadest at the middle and

narrowing towards apex and base, without a discoid widening,

3-lobed as seen from above, with the lobes emarginate, 3-

chambered with 2 ovules in each chamber ; style 2 mm. long,

narrowed towards the small terminal stigma, slightly 3-

grooved. (R. A. Dyer 3374, in National Herbarium, No.

27,133.) — F. van der Merwe.

Plate 926. — Fig. 1, leaf and inflorescence natural size; 2, flower en-

larged ; 3, axis ; 4, longitudinal section of flower ; 5 cross-section of ovary ;

6, habit.

F.P.S.A., Jan. 1944.

; •

927

cl 6 b

E.K. Buries del.

A. W. Darnell lith.

Plate 927.

STAAVIA GLUTINOSA.

Cape Province.

Bruniaceae.

Staavia glutinosa ( L .) Dahl in Obs. Bot. 17 (1787); Thunb. FI. Cap.

207 (1825) ; Harv. & Sond. FI. Cap. 2, 322 (1861-1862).

Like several other attractive members of the flora of

Table Mountain, the “ sticky Staavia ” found its way into the

famous gardens of Europe during the eighteenth century.

It was first described by Linnaeus in 1767 under the name

Brunia glutinosa, and in 1787 was put into the genus Staavia

by D. Dahl, a pupil of Linnaeus. The generic name Staavia is

in memory of Martin. Staaf, a correspondent of Linnaeus, and

the specific name refers to the very sticky nature of the flower-

heads. In 1807 this species, which was growing in the garden

at Hanover, was depicted in colour by Wendland in his

Collectio Plantarum. The description accompanying the

plate in that publication is clear and full, and the enlarged

painting of the flower and its parts show the details very well.

His specimen differs from ours in having the leaves pilose at

the base. This is apparently a variable character, for while

in the Flora Capensis (1861-62) the species is described as

glabrous, there are several specimens in the National Her-

barium, Pretoria, with long hairs on the leaves towards the

base. A careful examination of all the material from which

the piece was chosen for figuring here showed that, while most

of it was quite without hairs, here and there long hairs were

present on some of the leaves. The material was sent to this

Division in July 1943 by Mr. T. P. Stokoe, who remarked that

it was a small slender-stemmed shrub growing among Ericaceae

and general herbage on the slopes of Table Mountain at an

altitude of from about 2000 ft. upwards. All records in the

National Herbarium and all published records are from Table

Mountain, where the species is evidently endemic.

Description. — An erect slender-stemmed shrub about

2-3 ft. high, leafy especially in upper parts. Leaves petioled ;

petiole whitish with yellow base, 1-5 cm. long, flattened and

appressed to the branch ; blade green, 1-3 cm. long and 1*2 cm.

broad, minutely punctate, triquetrous, spreading-ascending

or arcuate-erect, glabrous or laxly pilose in the lower half,

tipped with a dark brown mucro. Involucre formed of the

uppermost whorls of leaves which surround the flower-head

and overtop it, the upper § white with a distinct dark brown

mucro. Flower-heads very sticky; the flowers, bracteoles

and a few long hairs matted together by a glutinous substance

on a flat receptacle about 4-5 mm. diameter and 2 mm. thick.

Bracteoles surrounding the individual flowers about 5 mm.

long, linear, becoming somewhat thickened and dark brown

towards the apex. Calyx-tube partly fused with the ovary;

the segments dark brown and somewhat thickened and in-

curved, about 2 mm. long. Petals yellowish-white, oblong,

about 2-5 mm. long and 1 *5 mm. wide. Stamens inserted at the

mouth of the calyx-tube, 2 mm. long. Ovary walls more or

less fused with the calyx-tube, but the apical portion exserted

for about 1 mm., 2-chambered with one ovule in each chamber ;

style simple (but splitting with the cocci), about 1 mm. long ;

stigma apical. Fruit about 4 mm. long, splitting into 2

cocci, sometimes only one maturing. (National Herbarium,

Pretoria, No. 27,149.) — I. C. Verdoorn.

Plate 927. — Fig. 1, involucral leaf; 2, young flower with one basal

bracteole ; 3, flower with maturing fruit and 3 basal bracteoles showing ; 4,

stamen ; 5, gynoecium ; 6, gynoecium split into 2 cocci (a) central view, ( b )

dorsal view.

F.P.S.A., Jan. 1944.

92S

E.K. Burges del.

A. W. Darnell lith.

Plate 928.

BRUNIA ALBIFLORA.

Cape Province.

Bruniaceae.

Brunia albiflora Phillips, in Kew Bull. 1922, p. 195.

Although Brunia albiflora Phillips has an extensive distri-

bution on the Hottentots Holland mountains only about 35

miles from Cape Town, it was not described until as recently

as 1922, when Mr. T. P. Stokoe made his first collection. He

has collected it on several occasions since then, and in June

1943 specially for figuring here. His notes read as follows :

It has an extensive range on the Hottentots Holland mountains

south of Kogelberg, generally on moist ground and at an

altitude of 1000-3000 ft., being very common on the south-

eastern slopes at the head of kloofs. The height is about

8 ft., the clustered old peduncles persisting on the stems, from

which it may be estimated that the life-span of the shrub is

ten to twelve years. Phillips, l.c., distinguishes Brunia

albiflora by its sparsely pilose linear leaves, and heads of white

flowers arranged in corymbs.

While on his collecting trip on the Hottentots Holland

mountains in 1922, Mr. Stokoe made several other interesting

botanical discoveries, including a second undescribed species

of Brunia. It was also described by Phillips in Kew Bulletin

1922, being named after the collector. It is more striking

than B. albiflora, and may be compared on Plate 92, vol. 3, of

this work. The text accompanying it should also be consulted.

The family Bruniaceae, to which Brunia albiflora belongs,

is endemic and well represented in the Cape Province, and

materially contributes towards the characteristic appearance

of the south-western Cape flora.

Description. — Shrub up to about 8 ft. tall, branched

towards the base. Branches rigid, about 7 cm. thick under

the inflorescence, villous ; branchlets slender, 10-20 cm. long,

arising 1-3 together at 1-5 cm. intervals. Leaves dense,

ascending, 1-2-1 -4 cm. long, 0-7 mm. diameter, linear, acutely

or sub-acutely black tipped, subterete, slightly channelled on

the upper surface, convex on the lower surface, minutely

glandular along the margin, thinly pilose with delicate hairs

up to 1 cm. long, mostly on the upper surface, later glabrescent.

Inflorescence corymbose, consisting of 20-40 densely packed

pedunculate heads; peduncles 3-6 cm. long, villous, densely

covered with bracts; basal bracts somewhat leaf -like; the

middle ones keeled ; those subtending the capitula very dense,

green-tipped, red at the base, linear-lanceolate, incurved,

thickened towards the base, densely ciliate at the middle.

Capitula 1-1-5 cm. diameter; axis of the capitula sub-

capitate, up to 8 mm. long, 5 mm. diameter, with long trans-

parent hairs and bracteoles; bracteoles 5 mm. long, linear-

spathulate, very slender at the base, densely villous about the

middle, incurved towards the glabrous green apex. Sepals

about 3-3-5 mm. long, 0-5 mm. broad, linear, keeled, apiculate,

densely villous above the middle. Petals white, 5-5-6 mm.

long, 1 mm. broad, linear, obtuse, slightly contracted to the

base, with two keels on the inner surface below the middle.

Filaments 4 mm. long; anthers 1-5 mm. long. Ovary with

one pendulous ovule in each chamber, ribbed round the middle ;

styles 2, divided to the base, 4-5 mm. long; stigma simple.

(National Herbarium, Pretoria, No. 27,146.) — R. A. Dyer.

Plate 928. — Fig. 1, branch natural size; 2, leaf, x 4; 3, capitulum, x 2;

4, middle keeled bracts, x 5; 5, upper curved swollen bract, x 5; 6,

flower with bracteoles, x 8; 7, sepal, x 8; 8, petal, x 10 ; 9, ovary, x 12.

F.P.S.A. Jan. 1943.

929

E.K. Buries del.

A.W. Darnell lith.

Plate 929.

DISPERIS MACOWANI.

Cape Province, Natal.

Orchid ace ae.

Disperis MacOwani Bolus in Journ. Linn. Soc. 22, 77 (1887) ; Rolfe in

FI. Cap. 5, 3, 307 (1913).

If one consults the text to the several previously published

illustrations of Disperis species in this work, Nos. 236, 308,

316, 327, 330, 499, there will be found references to all the

more interesting features of the genus.

The first desciption of Disperis MacOwani appeared in the

Journal of the Linnean Society in a contribution on South

African Orchids by Harry Bolus. The species has been re-

ferred to in literature on several occasions since then, the most

important one being in Orchids of South Africa, vol. 3, tab.

94 (1913), also by Harry Bolus. That plate was prepared

from the dried type material collected by Dr. P. MacOwen on

the Boschberg, in the Somerset East district of the Cape

Province. The plant now figured was also collected there;

on this occasion in April 1943, by Rev. R. C. Doe, who remarked

that he and his wife had climbed the Boschberg at the request

of Dr. L. Bolus specially to obtain material for figuring.

There are only very minor differences between the figure

by Harry Bolus and ours, due partly, no doubt, to the use of

dried material for the former and living plants for the latter.

The various dissections in each are drawn from slightly differ-

ent aspects. D. MacOwani, as the illustrations show, is a

small delicate herb, which is rather characteristic of the genus

as a whole. The broadly cordate-auriculate leaves and the

broadly ovate or cordate bracts are common to several of the

36 odd South African species, and the details of floral structure

afford the final means of classification. Since its discovery by

MacOwan, D. MacOwani has been recorded from various

moist cool and usually mountainous situations from the

George district in the Cape Province to near Van Reenen in

Natal.

Description. — A delicate terrestrial herb 8-20 cm. tall.

Tuber globose, up to 1 cm. in diameter, replaced by new growth

annually. Stem slender, sparsely pubescent. Leaves 2, caul-

ine, mauve-tinged on the back, amplexicaul, broadly cordate-

ovate, 15-20 mm. long and nearly as broad, with broad basal

lobes, minutely puberulous and ciliolate. Scape up to 20

cm. high, 1-flowered; bracts leaf-like, about 7 mm. long.

Flowers solitary, mainly pale-blue with a few light green dots

on the petals ; dorsal sepal galeate, 6 mm. long, with an acute

limb and a broadly conical obtuse sac ; lateral sepals spreading,

deflexed, more or less oblong, about 4 mm. long, produced into

an oblong sac, about equal to the apical subacute lobe ; petals

cohering to the dorsal sepal, falcate, obtuse, 6 mm. long, crisped

near the apex and with a rounded auricle near the base on the

margin ; lip erect within the dorsal sepal, 7 mm. long, linear

at the base, auricled on both margins about the middle, with

a 4-lobed, minutely papillose apex and a frontal limb. Ros-

tellum 4 mm. long, convex, with recurved apex and linear-

oblong twisted appendages, 2 mm. long. (National Herbar-

ium, Pretoria, No. 27,151.) — R. A. Dyer.

Plate 929. — Fig. 1, plant natural size; 2, flower x 9; 3, dorsal sepal

X 7 ; 4, petal x 6 ; 5, lip x 10 ; 6, rostellum x 10.

F.P.S.A., Jan. 1944.

930

Plate 930.

BULBINELLA SETOSA.

Cape Province.

Liliaceae.

Bulbinella setosa ( Willd.) Bur. & Schinz Consp. FI. Afr. 5, 334 (1895) ;

Anthericum setosum Willd. ex Roem. et Sch. Syst. Veg. 7, 473 (1829);

Bulbinella robusta Kunth. Enum. 4, 571 (1843) and FI. Cap. 6, 358 (1896).

This dainty little plant has in recent years come into its

own in the wild-flower gardens of the Transvaal. It occurs

naturally in the south-western Cape Province. Although

records show that it was collected by such early botanists as

Burchell, Drege, Zeyher and Harvey, there is no previous

botanical figure of this species.

On Plates 217, 377 and 489 of this work are figures of

species of the closely related genus, Bulbine. This genus is

easily distinguished from Bulbinella by the hairy stamens.

The very floriferous raceme of Bulbinella setosa is par-

ticularly attractive owing to the colour and arrangement of its

flowers in the different stages of development. The greenish

buds are borne erect on the very slender pedicels, and as the

bright canary-yellow flowers open, the pedicels become

spreading to cernuous, then after fertilization the pedicels

straighten to a stiffly erect position and the mature closed

flower turns a bronzy colour The glittering colour of the

living flower, which is difficult to reproduce, is caused by the

many superficial cells on the face of the perianth-segments

which, taut with their juicy contents, sparkle in the sun. A

coma of brownish-tipped bracts at the apex of the raceme

is hidden by the erect buds. Touches of reddish-brown, such

as the withered tips of the leaves, the old flowers and the

fibres at the base of the plant, add considerably to the pleasing

effect of the plant as a whole. The specific name refers to the

fibres at the base of each plant. These are the remains of the

sheathing bases of the oldest leaves.

The specimen figured here was taken from the wild-flower

garden in the grounds of the Union Buildings, Pretoria, where

it is cultivated among many other native plants. This

species is also a feature of “ The Wilds ” in Johannesburg

during the early spring.

Description. — Plants growing in clumps. Leaves basal,

about 8, strongly sheathing at the base and forming a leak-like

“ neck ” which is partly underground, the old sheathing leaf-

bases splitting into fibres; blades flaccid, green, striate, the

withered tips reddish brown, up to about 35 cm. long, about

1 cm. broad above the sheathing base ; upper surface canali-

culate and the lower rounded, with a few irregular minute

weak cartilaginous teeth on the margins. Peduncles green,

terete, erect, rather rigid, about 28 cm. long and 6 mm. in

diameter. Inflorescence a dense many-flowered terminal

raceme. Bracts green-keeled, with membranous margins,

about 7 mm. long and 1 mm. wide, clasping the base of the

pedicel, the upper with reddish brown tips and forming a small

coma at the top of the raceme. Pedicels light green, very

slender, terete, 8-12 mm. long, erect in the bud stage, then

spreading and finally erect again. Perianth bright canary-

yellow, united at the base only; segments of open flower

spreading, oblong, about 5 mm. long and 2*5 mm. broad, with

the upper surface shallowly concave ; the three outer slightly

more cucullate at the obtuse apices than the inner ; the three

inner obviously 2-nerved down the centre. Stamens yellow,

inserted at the base of the corolla-segments, up to 4 mm. long.

Ovary yellow, more or less globose, about 1-5 mm. diameter;

style yellow, simple, about 2 mm. long. (National Herbarium,

Pretoria, No. 27,160.) — I. C. Verdoorn.

Plate 930. — Fig. 1, clump of plants ; 2, bract attached to base of pedicel ;

3, bract ; 4, outer perianth-segment ; 5, inner perianth-segment ; 6, stamen ;

7, gynoecium.

F.P.S.A., Jan. 1944.

931

3cc A

A. W. Darnell lith.

E.K Buries del.

Plate 931.

CARALLUMA PILLANSII.

Cape Province.

Asclepiadaceae.

Caralluma Pillansii N. E. Br. in FI. Cap. 4, 1, 876 (1909); White and

Sloane, The Stapelieae 1, 296 (1937).

This is one of the few species in the tribe Stapelieae which

was not illustrated in the monograph on that group by White

and Sloane in 1937, nor has it been figured elsewhere. It is

therefore of more than usual interest to be able to publish a

coloured plate now. This was made possible by the kindness

of Mr. W. G. Powell of Pretoria in presenting a plant to the

Division of Botany and Plant Pathology, where it flowered

somewhat sparingly in April 1943. Mr. Powell found his

plants during a diligent hunt on the rocky slopes of Du Toits

River Pass in the Worcester district. The plants grow either

in the open or under the protection of woody shrublets. The

species occurs sparsely from the Worcester district eastwards

to somewhere between Beaufort West and Willowmore. The

light-cream, purple-spotted flowers are distinctive, and occur

in small clusters on the sides of the branches.

Most growers of succulent plants expect to be able to

multiply species of the tribe Stapelieae by means of cuttings,

but Caralluma Pillansii and a limited number of other species

do not respond to this vegetative method of reproduction.

The plant branches above ground into a compact little bush

up to about 1 ft. high. The character of the inner corona-

lobes has been in question, due to a mistake in the original

description by Brown. The dissection shown in Fig. 5 agrees

with the type specimen, according to a statement by Mr.

N. S. Pillans, after whom this and many other species of

South African succulent plants are named.

Description : — Succulent plant 15-30 cm. high, with a

single rootstock, branching near ground level. Branches

dull green, mottled and spotted with purple ; brown, glabrous

2-2*5 cm. thick, excluding the teeth, 4-angled; angles, with

stout much compressed, rigid, deltoid-conical teeth 7-13 mm.

prominent. Flowers 1 to several together in fascicles along

the grooves of the branches, 1-3 of each fascicle opening

together. Pedicels 1-2 mm. long, stout. Sepals ovate,

about 1*5 mm. long. Corolla somewhat fleshy and crisp;

bud 5-angled, purple-blotched, glabrous ; open flower purple-

blotched on a light purple ground, somewhat tuberculate

rugose, pubescent with intermixed short and long purple

hairs; tube companulate, about 5 mm. deep, with a small

annulus appearing as a contraction of the tube above the

corona; lobes slightly spreading, ovate-oblong, 7-10 mm.

long, 5 mm. broad, with sides folded half back. Outer corona-

lobes dark purple-brown, minute, about 0*5 mm. long, 1 mm.

broad, shortly bifid or emarginate, glabrous; inner corona-

lobes purple, arising between the outer corona-lobes, 1 mm.

long, oblong, inflexed-erect and sometimes meeting over the

centre of the staminal column, with a small tubercle or bump

at the base. (National Herbarium, Pretoria, No. 27,150.) —

R. A. Dyer.

Plate 931. — Fig. 1, branch, natural size; 2, flower, slightly enlarged;

3 and 3a, buds, natural size ; 4, longitudinal section of flower, x 3; 5, staminal

column with coronas, x 10 ; 6, habit.

F.P.S.A., April 1944.

Plate 932.

CHORTOLIRION STENOPHYLLUM.

Transvaal.

Liliaceae.

Chortolirion stenophyllum (Baker) Berger in Das Pflanzenr. Liliaceae-

Aloineae, 1908, p. 72 ; Haworthia stenophylla Baker in Hook. Icon. PI. t.

1974 (1891); FI. Cap. 6, 355 (1896).

The genus Chortolirion was established by Berger in 1908

to accommodate four species previously included in the genus

Haworthia ; three of the species are South African and the

fourth is from Angola.

The bulbous rootstock of Chortolirion is the most important

distinguishing feature between it and Haworthia. Berger

stresses also the difference in the habit of the leaves and claims

the further distinction of an acute ovary and capsule. There

is, however, no very definite line of demarcation between all

species of the respective genera, and it is not surprising that

many collectors, when they first find a plant of Chortolirion

in flower, think they have a very strange Haworthia or a

hybrid between an Aloe and a Haworthia.

While there appears to be some justification for retaining

two of the South African species — namely, C. tenuifolium

(Engl.) Berger and C. stenophyllum (Baker) Berger — the

differences, said to exist between the latter and C. subspicatum

(Baker) Berger, require further investigation. Both species

are recorded by Berger from near Johannesburg. The

specimens figured here were also collected in Johannesburg,

on the south-east slopes of north Cliff Ridge, by Mr. B.

Meintjes in February 1943. They agree well with the typical

form of C. stenophyllum collected by Galpin near Barberton

in 1890.

Berger criticised the plate of C. stenophyllum ( Haworthia

stenophylla ) in Hooker’s leones Plant, t. 1974 (1891), consider-

ing it inaccurate in various details. In mitigation of some

defects it must be remembered that the plate was made from

a dried specimen. Another factor not to be lost sight of is the

natural variability between individual plants. There is in

the National Herbarium, Pretoria, a sheet with two specimens

of Galpin 858, the type number of C. stenophyllum. One

specimen shows teeth and hairs on the leaves and evident

pedicels as depicted in Hook. Icon. Plant, t. 1974, while the

other has fewer teeth and hairs and shorter pedicels.

The leaves of species of Chortolirion are described as once

or twice articulated towards the base. It is true that the

leaves, as in species of Aloe and Haworthia, die back in irregular

lengths from the apex — the dying back usually being arrested

slightly above the bulb — but whether the junction between

living and dead cells is correctly referred to as an articulation

is open to question. Another misunderstanding which exists

about species of Chortolirion is the perianth-tube. In all the

material examined the perianth is united into a short tube at

the base only, and the lobes cohere tightly for some distance

above, thus usually giving it a tubular appearance for about

half its length.

Description : — Bulbous plant with a cylindric basal butt about 7-5 mm.

in diameter. Roots few, fleshy, 5-6 mm. thick, tapering. Bulb with few

truncate membranous scales covering the inner comparatively loosely packed

fleshy leaf-bases, ovoid-oblong, 3-5 cm. tall, 2 cm. broad, without any pro-

nounced neck. Leaves up to 10, lengthening to about 15 cm. long, 1-2 mm.

broad, linear, canaliculate at the base, becoming somewhat flattened towards

the apex, usually once or twice twisted, with decurved hair-tipped teeth on

the margin and back towards the base and on the margin above. Peduncle

slender, up to 45 cm. in total length with about 7-10 sterile bracts. Bracts

mainly ovate-lanceolate, about 5 mm. long. Raceme 5-20-flowered, 5-15

cm. long, moderately dense; pedicels 3-4 mm. long. Perianth 1-5 cm. long,

bilabiate; tube short; the segments linear-oblong with the outer ones 1-5

mm. broad and with the inner ones 2 mm. broad, united at the base only

but cohering and tubular to about half their length, spreading above ; the

abaxial outer segment and the adaxial inner segment recurved. Filaments

about 5 mm. long attached at the base of the ovary. Ovary 2-5-3 mm. long,

obtusely triquetrous, obtuse and distinctly contracted into the style ; style

1-5 mm. long with an obliquely capitate stigma. (National Herbarium,

Pretoria, No. 27,137.) — R. A. Dyer.

Plate 932. — Fig. 1, plant, natural size; 2, flower, x 2; 3, section near

base of leaf, x 8 ; 4, cross-section of leaf, x 8; 5, bract, x 8; 6, longitudinal

section of flower, x 5; 7, upper portion of leaf, x 34.

F.P.S.A., April 1944.

Plate 933.

STENOGLOTTIS LONGIFOLIA.

Natal.

Orchid ace ae.

Stenoglottis longilolia Hook. f. in Bot. Mag. t. 7186 (1891) ; Rolfe in FI.

Cap. 5, 3, 116 (1912).

The plant of this species illustrated in Curtis’s Botanical

Magazine t. 7186 (1891) was a particularly well-developed

example, whereas ours is rather less robust than usual. The

degree of luxuriance of the racemes varies quite considerably,

even where several plants are grown together in a single pot,

which feature is well shown in figure 72 of The Gardeners’

Chronicle, 1894. The range in size between individual forms

is even more marked in the allied species S. fimbriata Lindl.,

the typical form of which, with spotted leaves, was figured in

Curtis’s Botanical Magazine t. 5872 (1870), and a form with

unspotted leaves in Flowering Plants of South Africa, plate

585 (1935).

There have been differences in opinion as to whether the

5-lobed lip of S. longifolia and its more robust habit are sufficient

reason for distinguishing it specifically from S. fimbriata with

a 3-lobed lip. N. E. Brown, who first described the plant

now known as S. longifolia, referred to it in The Gardeners’

Chronicle 1889 as a variety of S. fimbriata, without, however,

giving it a varietal name. When Rolfe monographed the

Orchidaceae for the Flora Capensis 1912-13, he had before him

the two points of view, and his decision to retain both species

is accepted here. At that time the genus Stenoglottis was

comprised of three species, two South African and one from

Tropical Africa. In 1924 R. Schlechter added a fourth species,

S. Woodii, based on a plant collected by J. Medley Wood

near Botha’s Hill, Natal.

The article in The Gardeners’ Chronicle 1894, refers to

S. longifolia as “ a really first-rate greenhouse orchid (at Kew),

easily cultivated and free-flowering, whilst its flowers last

about three months The plant illustrated here came through

the post from the Botanical Department of the Natal Univer-

sity College, Pietermaritzburg, where it had been successfully

cultivated from roots collected by Mr. C. E. Platt in a forest

near Eshowe. Both S. longifolia and S. fimbriata are seen to

their best advantage when growing wild on moss-covered

banks, tree stumps or boulders, in or on the margin of tem-

perate forests, such as are frequently found in the eastern

Cape Province and Natal.

Description : — Herb with a dense cluster of thickened

fleshy roots. Leaves 6 to many, 9-18 cm. long, 1-2-5 cm.

broad, oblong to narrowly lanceolate-oblong, acute, slightly

undulate on the margin, spreading-erect and slightly recurved

at the apex. Scapes erect, 25-45 cm. tall, with several linear-

lanceolate recurved bracts below the flowers decreasing in size

upwards on the scape; raceme 10-25 cm. long, moderately

dense to dense. Bracts lanceolate, acuminate; the lowest

fertile one about 1-25 cm. long. Pedicels up to about 2 cm.

long, slender. Flowers light purple to white with a few to

several scattered dark pink spots. Sepals 7-8 mm. long ; the

odd one broadly oblong-ovate with a slightly reflexed apex;

lateral ones slightly asymmetric. Petals 4-5 mm. long,

asymmetric, more or less ovate, acute or with an erose or

minutely denticulate apex; lip 1-2 mm. long, oblong, 5-lobed.

Column short, with two short stigmatic processes on either

side of the pollen-cells; the upper process slightly capitate;

the other linear. (National Herbarium, Pretoria, No. 27,153.)

— R. A. Dyer.

Plate 933. — Pig. 1, plant, natural size; 2, flower, X 3J; 3, odd sepal,

X 4 ; 4, petal, x 6; 5, column, x 10.

F.P.S.A., April 1944.

93 +

E'.K. Burges del.

A. W. Darnell lit h.

Plate 934.

DIPCADI OLIGOTRICHUM.

Transvaal.

Liliaceae.

Dipcadi oligotrichum Baker in Bull. Herb. Boiss. Ser. 2, 4, 1000 (1904).

The genus Dipcadi, comprising nearly 100 species, figures

in these pages for the first time. It is represented in Southern

Europe, India and throughout Africa and Madagascar. The

species are divided into two main groups, those with the inner

and outer whorls of perianth-segments more or less equal, and

those with the two whorls markedly unequal. It will be seen

that D. oligotrichum belongs to the former group. Although

species of Dipcadi have little merit in coloration to recommend

them to the horticulturist — being mainly greenish — they are

certainly graceful components of the South African veld.

The name Dipcadi oligotrichum Baker is based on a speci-

men (Conrath 676) collected at Modderfontein near Johannes-

burg. The type is described as having two suberect linear

leaves with a few hairs on both surfaces. In addition to

differences in leaf-character, our plant is larger than Conrath

676 in all parts. The specimen figured, collected by Miss

C. F. Hawke at Hatfield, Pretoria, in Nov. 1942, was identified

as a form of D. oligotrichum after matching it closely with a

specimen compared in 1930 with the type at Kew. A broad

view of the species is being taken. Miss Hawke noted that

plants appearing in ploughed land were generally more

vigorous than those in virgin veld. Plants similar in habit

are common in grassveld in many localities of the Transvaal,

and records also exist from neighbouring provinces and

Southern Rhodesia. A series of other plants differ in minor

respects, having more or fewer leaves and a variable pubescence.

Unless plants of this group are handled with care, some of the

leaves are liable to be detached from the bulb. This makes

correct identification problematical, since in some cases the

outer and inner leaves differ considerably in form.

Baker ( l.c .) credited Conrath with the discovery of three

other species from Modderfontein in addition to D. oligotri-

chum, naming one after the collector and the other two D.

palustre and D. polyphyllum. He evidently overlooked the

fact that he had already used the specific epithet polyphyllum

in the Flora Capensis 6, 446 (1897) for a closely related plant

from Natal.

The clarification of the nomenclature of the South African

species of Dipcadi is part of the greater task of revising the

whole family Liliaceae. There is little prospect of achieving

a satisfactory result from an examination of herbarium

specimens alone. With skilful management in cultivation,

the normal growth form of bulbous plants is not materially

altered. It is by this means, as an aid to herbarium and field

work (as is being done in the case of hundreds of bulbs of Scilla

at the National Herbarium), that we may hope for success.

Description : — Bulb 1-2-2 cm. diameter, subglobose, contracted into a

neck 1-5-4 cm. long, covered by a brown membranous tunic of old leaf-

bases. Leaves 8-12 from each bulb, canaliculate; the outer ones shorter

than the inner ones, about 3 mm. broad towards the base, spirally twisted

slightly above ground level with straight tips, glabrous on the upper surface,

furnished with hairs up to 2 mm. long on the back and margins in the spirally

twisted portion and becoming glabrous towards the tips; the innermost

leaves 10-20 cm. long, 1-2 mm. broad, straight and only a few weak hairs

on the margins and back towards the base. Peduncles 1-2 from a bulb,

30-60 cm. tall; the smaller ones comparatively slender. Flowers 4-9 in a

lax secund raceme ; lower pedicels 8-12 mm. long ; bracts lanceolate, cus-

pidate, very soon falling. Perianth green, slightly glaucous, about 2 cm.

long, with a tube 3-4 mm. long, thence the outer lobes cohering for approxi-

mately half their length before reflexing ; the inner lobes cohering for approxi-

mately two-thirds of their length before reflexing ; lobes linear, all more or

less equal in length. Stamen inserted in the throat of the perianth-tube;

filaments 3 mm. long, twice kneed above the position of attachment ; anthers

6 mm. long, linear. Ovary about 3 mm. long, slightly 3-angled (one 4-angled

and 4-chambered) ; style stout, 2 mm. long, slightly 3-angled with stigma sub-

capitate, 3-grooved and obscurely 6-angled as seen from above. Capsule

moderately 3-angled, about 15 mm. long and 9 mm. broad towards the base,

narrowed slightly to the apex with the base of the style persistent. (National

Herbarium, Pretoria, No. 27,161.) — R. A. Dyer.

Plate 934. — Fig. 1 and la, flowering plant and fruiting specimen from

a different plant, natural size : 2, flower, X 2| ; 3, longitudinal section of

base of perianth showing stamens and kneed filaments, x 5; 4, gynoecium,

X 5.

F.P.S.A., April 1944.

935

Plate 935.

TULBAGHIA LUDWIGIANA.

Cape Province, Natal, Transvaal.

• Liliaceae.

Tulbaghia Ludwigiana Harv. in Curtis Bot. Mag. t. 3547 (1837);

T. alliacea Linn. f. var. (3. Baker in FI. Cap. 6, 405 (1897).

It is a noteworthy feature of the genus Tulbaghia, which

consists of about two dozen species, that some, like T.

violacea Harv., have flowers with the disagreeable odour of

garlic, while others, like T. fragrans Verdoorn, are sweetly

scented. In the original description of T. Ludwigiana,

Harvey described the smell as strong, resembling that of

onion. In our plant the flowers were faintly sweetly scented,

the leaves faintly garlic and the roots fairly strongly so.

Illustrations of the two species T. violacea and T. fragrans

are to be found on Plates 9 and 438 respectively. The latter

species is becoming popular as a garden plant, on account of

its sweetly scented and otherwise attractive mauve flowers.

Another species, T. alliacea Linn, f., is illustrated on Plate 653,

with which the one opposite should be compared, since Baker

in the Flora Capensis vol. 6 (1897) classified T. Ludwigiana

Harv. as a variety of it. Harvey’s illustration and descrip-

tion in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine t. 3547 (1837) were based

on plants “ sent to the Ludwigsburg Gardens, Cape of Good

Hope, from the border of Cafferland, by Mr. Zier in 1834 ”,

Harvey mentioned that his plant approached T. alliacea in

many characters, but was amply distinguished by the three-

- lobed, bright yellow corona. In addition, it is far more robust

generally, the leaves being up to 2-5 cm. broad. In fact the

plant figured here is not quite so robust as Harvey’s plant,

and a detailed investigation of the genus as a whole might well

result in the segregation of more species from the specimens

now regarded as forms of previously described plants. One

specimen from Barberton, Transvaal, taken to be equal to

our plant, is stated by the collector as having a “ tomato-

red ” corona.

Our illustration was made in September 1942, when plants

collected near Eshowe, Zululand, by Rev. J. Gerstner, flowered

at the Division of Botany and Plant Pathology.

Different authorities have described the rootstock of

Tulbaghia as a “ rhizome ”, “ tuberous ”, “ corm ”, “ bulb ”,

“ not bulbous ”. The rootstock in most species grows erect

in the ground, is unbranched or branched, and generally the

leaves die down in winter, leaving the slightly fleshy leaf-

bases crowning the apex of the semi-persistent, variously

enlarged stem. The stem dies back with age, and new roots

are produced slightly below the leaf-bases. The storage

capacity of the leaf-bases as compared with that of the stem

varies in different species. The illustration opposite of the

rootstock should be compared with those of Scilla ovatifolia

Baker and S. graminifolia Baker, Plates 830 and 831, in which

the old stems form a pronounced basal butt to the bulbs.

Description : — Rootstock erect, simple or occasionally branched, consist-

ing of a stout butt or semipersistent stem 4 cm. long and 3*5 cm. in diameter

with a much reduced bulb at the apex ; the roots arising just below the leaf

bases, fleshy, about 0*5 cm. diameter; bulb 1*5-2 cm. tall, 2*5-3 cm. in

diameter, with a short neck ; covered by brown membranous remains of leaf-

bases. Leaves 8-10, dark green, fairly leathery, distichous, up to about

15 cm. long and 1*5 cm. broad, ligulate, narrowed gradually to the obtuse

apex, dying back annually. Scape arising from the axis of one of the outer

leaves, erect, about 45 cm. tall, about 5 mm. in diameter, slightly compressed,

more evidently so towards the base, somewhat glaucous. U mbel 8-9-flowered,

buds drooping, gradually rising to the erect position by the time the flower

withers. Spathe-valves 2-3, membranous, of different sizes; the largest

ovate-lanceolate, up to 2*5 cm. long. Peduncles 2*5-3 cm. long, slender.

Perianth green with an orange-coloured corona, 11-12 mm. long, united into

a tube 7-7*5 mm. long ; the lobes ovate-oblong, with the inner ones united

to the corona for 1*5 mm. further than the outer ones; corona orange

coloured, fleshy, about 3 mm. deep with 6 small blunt irregular teeth (or 3

short, emarginate lobes). Stamens sessile in two series on the corona.

Ovary oblong; style cylindric, slightly shorter than the ovary; stigma

subcapitate, truncate. (National Herbarium, Pretoria, No. 27,039.) — R. A.

Dyer.

Plate 935. — Fig. 1, plant, natural size; 2, longitudinal section of root-

stock and reduced bulb ; 3, longitudinal section of flower, x 4.

F.P.S.A., April 1944.

2&21

E.K Buries del.

A. W. Darnell lith.

Plate 936.

PROTEA MELLIFERA.

Cape Province.

Pkoteaceae.

Protea meUifera Thunb. Diss. Prot. 34. 52 (1781); FI. Cap., vol. 5, sect.

1, p. 576 (1912).

Protea meUifera, probably the most common and certainly

the best known of all the species of Protea, has escaped being

illustrated in this work until now. A coloured illustration

first appeared in a botanical publication in the year 1795, and

this was prepared from a plant grown at Kew from seed

collected at the Cape by Francis Masson in 1774. Since the

species is such a common one at the Cape, it is perhaps strange

that it was not the first species of Protea to be illustrated in

botanical literature, for as early as the year 1605 Clusius

figured a capitulum of P. neriifolia.

P. meUifera appears as a floral emblem on the South

African coat of arms, and while, so far as we know, there has

been no official recognition, it has tacitly been accepted as the

national floral emblem of South Africa. Another species of

Protea already appears on some of the South African silver

coins. While nearly all Proteas are commonly known as

“ sugar bushes ”, the name was first applied to P. meUifera,

as a syrupy fluid is obtained from the flowering heads which is

collected on a small scale and boiled down to a syrup. The

specimen we figure was sent to us by Mr. T. P. Stokoe.

Description : — Wood of shrub up to about 8 ft. high.

Branches glabrous. Leaves 8-10 cm. long, 6-8 mm. broad

above, narrowing below, glabrous. Head 11 cm. long, 3*6 cm.

in diameter below. Involucral-bracts in many series; the

outermost tightly imbricate, ovate, somewhat mealy; inner-

most linear-oblong, glutinous. Receptacle conical. Perianth

7-5 cm. long; sheath 3-5 cm. long, membranous, dilated,

keeled, nerved; limb 3-awned, with the two lateral awns

slightly longer than the median one; awns tufted with long

white hairs. Anthers linear with a small linear apical gland.

Ovary 2*5 mm. long, with long golden-brown hairs from the

base ; style 6*5 cm. long, somewhat flattened below, narrowing

above ; stigma furrowed. (National Herbarium, Pretoria,

No. 27,171.) — E. P. Phillips.

Plate 936. — Fig. 1, a single flower ; 2, tip of one perianth-segment show-

ing the three lobes ; 3, stamens attached to limb of perianth ; 4, ovary with

scales at base ; 5, portion of involucral-bracts showing mealy appearance.

F.P.S.A., April 1944.

Plate 937.

LASIOSIPHON CAPITATUS.

Cape Province, Natal, O.F.S., and Transvaal.

Th YMEL AE ACE AE .

Lasiosiphon capitatus Burtt Davy, Flowering PI. & Ferns Transv.

and Swaz. 1, 207 (1926); Onidia capitata Linn, f., Suppl. 224 (1781);

Lasiosiphon linifolius Decne, Wright in FI. Cap. 6, 2, 73 (1915).

This is one of the spring and summer flowering plants

commonly seen in grassveld in the eastern Cape Province,

Natal, Orange Free State, and Transvaal. It may even

extend into Rhodesia. In view of its prominence in the veld, it

is not surprising that it was collected by all the famous early

botanists who penetrated its area of distribution, the first

being Thunberg, on whose specimens Linnaeus, the younger,

almost certainly founded the species Onidia capitata.

At various times Lasiosiphon capitatus and some related

plants have been classified in the genus Gnidia. In the Flora

Capensis, Wright maintained both genera, the former based

on a 4-merous flower and the latter on a 5-merous flower. On

rare occasions the distinction breaks down, and within recent

years some workers have again suggested that the two genera

should be amalgamated under the older name Gnidia, but no

generally accepted classification has been presented. Which-

ever generic name is used for our plant, the specific epithet

capitatus remains. There is an appreciable variation in some

of the characters of L. capitatus — for instance, in the pubescence

and shape of the petals — and this has given rise to the estab-

lishment of separate species and varieties by some authors.

In the material figured here the petals were small and variously

minutely lobed, differing in this respect from those represented

under Gnidia transvaaliensis Gilg in De Wild. PI. Nov. Herb.

Hort. Then. 1, 206, t. 46 figs. 10-16 (1906), which is one form

regarded as a variant of L. capitatus. Wright, while reducing

certain species and varieties of other authors to synonymy

} MARY GUNN LIBRARY

| NATIONAL BOTANICAL INSTITUTE

PRIVATE BAG X101

PRETORIA 0001

REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA

under L. capitatus, established a species L. similis. This in

turn has been regarded as merely another form of L. capitatus

by Burtt Davy in his Flora of the Transvaal and Swaziland.

The material figured here was collected by Miss Cythna Letty

in October 1943, in Pretoria, on the hillside to the north of

Meintjies Kop, on which stands the Union Buildings.

The perennial woody rootstock of L. capitatus is most fire-

resistant, enduring annual veld burning and apparently

thriving on the treatment. It is unlikely that the plant will

ever find its way into general cultivation, but it would always be

an interesting inclusion in “ wild gardens ” such as are becom-

ing increasingly popular in South Africa within recent years.

The flowers wither within a few hours after being picked and

placed in water.

Description : — Perennial herb freely branched from the

woody rootstock, 25-45 cm. tall, pilose; the bark with the

characteristic fibrous texture of the family. Branches slender,

branched above ; branchlets producing terminal inflorescences.

Leaves somewhat glaucous, sessile, 2*5-3*5 cm. long, 2-3 mm.

broad, oblong to linear, acuminate, pilose with the hairs

somewhat adpressed. Heads pedunculate, 10-30-flowered,

surrounded by bracts. Peduncle 5-8 cm. long, those pro-

duced later in the season being shorter, bracteate at the

apex. Bracts 1*25-1 -75 cm. long, lanceolate. Calyx-tube 1*5-

2*5 cm. long, slender, articulated above the ovary; lobes

yellowish-orange, 5, occasionally 4, about 5 mm. long, 2 mm.

broad, spreading recurved, oblong. Petals 5, occasionally 4,

represented by small scale-like outgrowths from the sinuses

of the calyx-lobes, variously toothed. Stamens 10, 5 inserted

in the mouth of the calyx-tube and anthers mostly exserted,

5 inserted 2 mm. within the tube ; anthers 1*5 mm. long, linear.

Ovary oblong, style excentric, shorter than the corolla- tube. —

R. A. Dyer.

Plate 937. — Fig. 1, tops of branches, natural size; 2, leaf, x 3; 3,

longitudinal section of flowering head with flowers removed, slightly en-

larged ; 4, bud, x 2 ; 5, flower, x 2; 6, 6a, longitudinal section of flower,

X 5 ; 7, petal, x 10 ; 8, habit.

F.P.S.A., April 1944.

938

Plate 938.

GERBERA DISCOLOR.

Transvaal.

Compositae.

Gerbera discolor Sond. in FI. Cap. 3, 522 (1864-1865).

It seems a feature of at least several species of the genus

Gerbera that the flowers show a considerable range in colour.

Two species have been figured previously in this work. The

first was G. Jamesoni Bolus (Plate 5), the Barberton Daisy,

which has a very wide reputation as a desirable garden flower ;

and the second, G. plantaginea Harv. (Plate 85), with less

attractive flowers. Both species are found in the wild state

with different colour forms, and a great diversity has been

evolved from the Barberton Daisy in cultivation. The speci-

mens of G. discolor collected by Mr. A. O. D. Mogg in October

1943 near Pretoria for the present plate, exhibited at least

three distinct shades of colour within a radius of a few yards.

The most common colour was bright yellow, and variants of

cream and golden brown were also collected. While G. Jame-

soni has been figured over twenty times, this is the first

occasion on which G. discolor has appeared in a botanical

work.

Gerbera discolor and G. plantaginea, whose flowers are of

similar size, often grow in association with each other near

Pretoria. It is of interest that the type specimens of both

were collected on the Magaliesberg over one hundred years

ago by the naturalists Burke and Zeyher. There is some

suggestion in herbarium records that natural hybridisation

takes place on occasions between the two species in the

Pretoria district, and it would not be surprising if it were so,

but no definite proof of this is available. The two plants are

distinguished by the leaves of G. discolor being white-woolly

beneath, while those of G. plantaginea are green on both sides.

The pappus of both is described as rufus or foxy, but in the

present examples of G. discolor the pappus was a straw colour.

A feature of interest in this and related species is the biseriate

dimorphic ray florets.

Description : — Perennial herb, branching from the base

into tufts, with a woody rhizome covered with woolly indu-

mentum and the fibrous remains of the leaf-bases and produc-

ing many thick cylindric roots. Leaves 3-20 cm. long, 0-75-3

cm. broad — the first leaves of each season having about the

minimum measurements and those following being larger —

oblong-lanceolate, usually obtuse, tapering gradually into the

petiole, entire or subdenticulate, glabrescent and green above,

white-tomentose beneath, with the petiole long-ciliate at the

base and with the midrib and lateral veins distinct beneath.

Peduncles developing successively from each rosette of leaves,

20-35 cm. tall, tomentose. Capitula up to 4 cm. in diameter

across the rays, about 1 cm. across the involucre. Involucral-

bracts in about 3 rows, tomentose ; the outer about 0-75 mm.

long; inner about 1-3 cm., linear, acuminate. Receptacle

slightly convex, shallowly honeycombed. Ray-florets yellow,

cream or golden brown, in two rows ; the outer with a strap-

shaped limb 1-25-1-5 cm. long, 2-5-3 mm. broad, minutely

2-3-toothed at the apex and with the lower lip divided into 2

filiform lobes about 2 mm. long and with 4-5 hair-like appen-

dages of nearly equal length from within the mouth of the

tube; inner ray-florets with the strap-shaped limb much

reduced, recoiled, 2-2-5 mm. long. Pappus straw-coloured,

5 mm. long, about equalling the corolla-tube. Ovary 2 mm.

long, oblong, pilose, maturing up to 7-8 mm. and produced at

the apex into a short beak. Disc-florets bilabiate with lobes

2-3 mm. long; outer lobe minutely 3-toothed; inner 2-

toothed; the teeth very minutely glandular-hairy; ovary

nearly glabrous, sterile. (National Herbarium, Pretoria No.

27,166.) — R. A. Dyer.

Plate 938. — Fig. 1, portion of tufted plant, natural size; la, lb, lc,

colour forms ; 2, ray-floret, x 3; 3, part of outer ray-floret showing divided

lower lip and hair-like appendages, x 5; 4, top of inner ray-floret, x 5 ;

5, top of disc-floret, x 5 ; 6, pappus seta, x 6.

F.P.S.A., April 1944.

939

Plate 939.

INDIGOFERA BURKEANA.

Transvaal.

Legttminosae.

Indigofera Burkeana Benth. ex Harv. in FI. Cap. 2, 197 (1861-1862).

Although Indigofera Burkeana may never attain popularity

as a cultivated garden plant, it will always be regarded, like

Gnidia capitata and Gerbera discolor, reproduced on the two

previous plates, as among the more attractive early spring

flowers of the Transvaal highveld. Indigofera Burkeana is

to be found in most grassveld areas of the Transvaal. As in

the case of Gerbera discolor, Indigofera Burkeana was collected

first by the early travellers Burke and Zeyher on their excur-

sion to the Magaliesberg, Transvaal. Our plant was collected

by Mr. A. O. D. Mogg, in the open grassveld to the east of

Pretoria ; it was there flowering in profusion, and its clustered

small bright salmon-red flowers formed patches of colour

conspicuous when seen from a distance. For reasons of

clarity the habit sketch shown on the plate depicts only about

a third of the branches which usually grow from a single

perennial rootstock. The plants possess a strong tap root

with several lateral branches.

No species of Indigofera has previously been figured in

these pages, which is somewhat surprising, considering there

are roughly 200 species in southern Africa, the total number

being in the vicinity of 500. Species are recorded throughout

the world in tropical to temperate parts, with the greatest

concentration on the African Continent. Those who are

unacquainted with the genus Indigofera should note particularly

in the figure the medifixed hairs and the eared carina. In

Indigofera Burkeana the side lobe of the alae fit into the

depression on the side of the carina. Other points are the

petiolulate terminal leaflet and the pairs of opposite leaflets,

the ribbed stems with adpressed silvery pubescence.

Description : — A densely tufted erect perennial herb

30-45 cm. tall (1-1| ft.). Branches canescent with closely

appressed hairs, erect, the outer ones spreading with age,

usually unbranched except near the base, ribbed and angular.

Leaves imparipinnate, usually 1 -5-3*5 cm. apart, shortly

petiolate, with 2 stipules at the base; petioles 1-5-5 mm.;

stipules 2 mm. long, subulate. Leaflets in 1 or 2 opposite

pairs and the terminal leaflet with a petiolule 1-5-3 mm. long,

1- 2 cm. long, 4-7 mm. broad, acute with a midrib prominent

on the under surface. Peduncles about 5 on each branch,

2- 3 developed successively in the axils of lower leaves and

2-3 towards the apex of the branches, up to 20 cm. long, erect,

angular, densely many flowered; racemes at first about 3-5

cm. long, elongating up to about 15 cm. long as the apical

flowers open, fruit often setting sparsely. Flowers about 1

cm. long with petals nearly equal in length. Calyx half

length of corolla-segments, subulate. Petals bright salmon

coloured, glabrous; the vexillum turned up at right angles

from about half its length, 6 mm. broad; alae 1-1-1 cm. long,

slightly eared on the inner upper margin and fitting into the

depression on the side of the keel; keel about 1 cm. long,

eared on the sides, acute, the apex often reflexed but not

regularly so. Legume about 2-5 cm. terete, straight, deflexed,

thinly canescent, many seeded. (National Herbarium, Pre-

toria. No. 27,175.) — R. A. Dyer.

Plate 939. — Fig. 1, portion, of flowering branch, natural size; 2, flower,

X 4 ; 3, section of stem, x 6 ; 4, leaf, natural size ; 5, calyx, x 6; 6, one

of the alae, x 4; 7, carina, x 4; 8, immature legume, natural size; 9,

habit.

F.P.S.A., April 1944.

94-0

E.K. Buries del.

AW. DarneJ] Iith

Plate 940.

BRACHYSTELMA FOETIDUM.

Transvaal, O.F.S., Natal.

Asclepiad ace ae .

Brachystelma foetidum Schlechter in Engl. Bot. Jahrb. 20, Beibl.

51, 52 (1895) ; N.E. Br. in FI. Cap. 4, 1, 840 (1908) ; Skan in Cnrtis Botanical

Magazine t. 8817 (1919) ; Pole Evans in Union Dept. Ag. Year Book 1917,

p. 4 and plate 14a.

In his monograph of the genus Brachystelma in the Flora

Capensis, 1908, Brown came to the conclusion that B. foetidum

shows considerable variability in its flowers. He found that

the plant described by Schlechter as B. Rehmannii is merely a

large-flowered specimen of B. foetidum. While never very

common, the species has a wide distribution in the Union,

being recorded from grassveld areas in all regions except the

Cape Province and southern Natal. The specimen figured

here was collected in October 1943, by Mr. J. J. Minnaar near

Dryharts, 27 miles south of Vryburg. Tubers were found in

a small area in deep fine red soil, being apparently absent on

an adjacent stony hillside. The plant was then only just

coming into flower, and consequently less floriferous than it

would have been a few weeks later.

The specific epithet foetidum is on account of the very

objectionable smell of the flowers, and few individuals, who

have handled flowering specimens, have failed to remark on

this property. It was this which resulted in Mr. Minnaar

locating the plants in the veld. He says : “ I was examining

a bulbous plant in the veld when the strong odour reached

me and I at once began searching for one of the Stapelieae.

Instead I found this peculiar related plant.” Another

interesting feature is the comparatively large tuber, which

is eaten by natives on occasions.

A photograph of a plant collected in 1916 near Johannes-

burg, by Dr. I. B. Pole-Evans C.M.G., was reproduced in the

Union Department of Agriculture Official Year Book, 1917,

plate 14a. Specimens, probably from the same area and

collected at the same time, were forwarded to the Royal

Botanic Gardens, Kew, in January 1917, by Miss A. M.

Bottomley (not Mr.), who was then, owing to war conditions,

temporarily in charge of the gardens at the Division of Botany

and Plant Pathology. One of the tubers flowered at Kew in

the following May and was painted for reproduction in Curtis’s

Botanical Magazine, t. 8817. The flowers of that plant were

larger than those figured here, the difference being mainly in

the length of the corolla-lobes, which is reflected in the shape

of the buds in the respective plates. Several other species of

Brachystelma have been figured earlier in our pages and these

should be consulted for further general information about the

genus.

Description : — Perennial herb with tuberous rootstock. T vher flattened,

up to 14 cm. in diameter, 5 cm. high, slightly concave on the upper side and

convex on the bottom, up to about 14 cm. underground, producing from the

centre of the top side 1 to several stems. Sterns persistent underground,

producing new growth annually above ground; annual branches above

ground 7-15 cm. long, suberect and spreading, pubescent. Leaves spreading,

1-5-2 cm. long, 0-5-1 cm. broad (sometimes up to 5 cm. long and 1-6 cm.

broad) elliptic-ovate, narrowed into a short petiole, longitudinally folded,

undulate on the margin, pubescent above and below. Flowers usually in

fascicles of 2 (up to 6 in some specimens) at the nodes, one slightly lateral on

each side of the petiole. Pedicels about 8 mm. long, pubescent. Sepals 4

mm. long, lanceolate, pubescent. Corolla, in bud, ovate-acuminate in

outline, expanded, 2-5 cm. in diameter ; tube with inner surface with dark

purple warty spots and transverse bands on a whitish ground, glabrous,

campanulate, 6-7 mm. deep, 7-9 mm. in diameter ; lobes dark purple at the

base becoming greenish towards the tips, spreading recurved, about 1 cm.

long, linear from a deltoid base, acute, with revolute or reflexed margins,

ciliate with hairs like those on their backs. Outer corona purple blotched,

in one series with the inner corona-lobes, slightly shorter than the staminal-

column bifid forming pockets between the inner corona-lobes, with few

minute hairs near the tip ; inner corona-lobes incumbent on the backs of the

anthers and not exceeding them, oblong, glabrous. (National Herbarium,

Pretoria, No. 27,165.) — R. A. Dyeb.

Plate 940. — Fig. 1, la, annual growth, natural size; 2, bud, x 2;

3, longitudinal section of flower, x 3; 4, corona, x 8; 5, habit, x

F.P.S.A., April 1944.

9Jr1

S K.Burges del.

A. W. Darnell litb

Plate 941.

SCHIZOCHILUS STRICTUS.

Transvaal.

Orchid ace ae.

Schizochilus strictus Rolfe in FI. Cap. 5, 2, 91 (1912).

On no previous occasion has a species of Schizochilus

been figured in these pages. The genus is comprised of about

twelve species, terrestrial in habit, and all except one are

restricted to southern Africa. The flowers are small, generally

yellow, but occasionally white.

Prior to the description of Schizochilus strictus by Rolfe

in Flora Capensis in 1912, this plant was regarded as a form

of S. Zeyheri Sond. Rolfe stated that the two species were

very similar, but that S. strictus differed in its straight habit

and very narrow leaves. S. Zeyheri occurs on the mountains

of the eastern Cape Province and extends into similar situations

in Natal, while S. strictus extends from there into cool and

moist highland areas of the eastern Transvaal. On 10th

December, 1943, Mr. A. E. Grewcock found specimens of the

following four ground orchids in a vlei near the forest station :

Disa extinctoria Reichb. fil. (Plate 295), Satyr ium longicauda

Lindl., S. parviflorum Sw. and Schizochilus strictus Rolfe, one

plant of which was painted.

The plant figured differs from typical S. strictus in having

slightly broader leaves, which are, in this respect, nearly

equal to some forms of S. Zeyheri. Mr. Grewcock sent a second

specimen from the same site more closely matching the typical

form, but not quite so suitable for figuring. The question

arose, whether to regard S. strictus as a narrow-leaved form

of S. Zeyheri or not. In addition to the generally narrower

leaves of S. strictus, the leaves are not so markedly radical,

and there is a more gradual transition between radical leaves,

cauline leaves and bracts, than there is in S. Zeyheri, in which

the transition is often relatively abrupt. But, for all this, no

constant difference has been recorded, and it would not be

surprising if at some future date S. str ictus was once more re-

garded as a growth form of S. Zeyheri. S. Zeyheri was

figured by Bolus in bis Orchids of South Africa Vol. 1, Plate 18.

Description : — Tubers 1 or 2 developed at flowering period,

subcylindric, 3 cm. long, 1 cm. diameter. Plant 25-45 cm.

tall, erect, with the apical portion of the inflorescence nodding.

Leaves radical and cauline ; radical 3-4:, outermost scale-like ;

the second linear, acute, about 8 cm. long, and the third and

fourth up to 15 cm. long, 7-9 mm. broad; cauline 4-5, de-

creasing in size from the leaves into bracts below the inflor-

escence. Raceme 5-10 cm. long, moderately dense, 15-25-

flowered, nodding. Bracteoles ovate-lanceolate ; the lower

ones up to about 8 mm. long. Flowers yellow, very minutely

papillate. Sepals 6-8 mm. long, ovate-oblong, 3-nerved,

concave ; the lateral ones slightly falcate. Petals nearly

white, 4 mm. long, ovate, with one central rib. Lip about as

long as the sepals, 3-lobed ; side lobes falcate, acute or obtuse,

2 mm. long, slightly shorter than the middle lobe; middle

lobe 3 mm. long, ovate-oblong; disc with a small oblong

tubercle at the base within, and two smaller lobes on either

side; spur 4 mm. long; subcylindric, column short; the

anther-thecae about 2 mm. long in a boat-shaped sac, and

with a small wrinkled swelling on either side in the same

plane as the pollen glands. (National Herbarium, Pretoria,

No. 27,181). — R. A. Dyer.

Plate 941. — Fig. 1, plant, natural size; 2, flower, x4; 3, flower with

sepals removed, X 4 ; 4, lip, X 8 ; 5, column (sepals, petals and spur re-

moved), x8.

F.P.S.A., July, 1944.

E.K. Burges del

TO

A. W. Darnell del.

Plate 942.

RETZIA CAPENSIS.

Cape Province.

Retziaceae.

Retzia capensis Thunb. in Acta Lund. 1. 55, t. 1, fig. 2 (1776) ; Wright

in FI. Cap. 4, 2, 120 (1904) ; Marloth, Flora of S. Afr. 3, 1, 122 and Plate 32

(1932) ; 3, 2, 339 (1932).

Retzia is one of the several monotypic genera endemic in the south-

western Cape Province. Few plants have caused a greater divergence in

views as to their correct classification among the families of flowering plants.

From a position in the Convolvulaceae it was raised to family rank, later

placed in or near the families Apocynaceae, Solanaceae, Scrophulariaceae back

to Convolulaceae, and lastly again recognised as a separate family by Marloth

in 1932. Marloth reviews the history of Retzia in some detail in Volume 3

part 1 of his Flora of South Africa, 1932, and it is not necessary to repeat

the technical details. He concludes by saying that the best solution appears

to be to place Retzia near Solanaceae as a separate family.

Some of the general observations by Marloth are worthy of repetition.

He states that the shrub is restricted to the small area enclosed by the

Hottentots Holland’s Mountains, the River Zonder Einde Mountains, the

Bredasdorp Mountains and the sea. It owes its persistence, in spite of the

veld-burning practised there for centuries, to its power of regeneration

from the crown of the root, an advantage possessed by a number of these

relic plants. But even this property has not been able to save it from

extinction on many of these hills when the veld is burnt at short intervals

and the propagation by seed consequently prevented, for the shrub takes

five or more years to reach the flowering stage. Marloth says further that

these plants speak to us of their long and ancient history and stand there

as living witnesses of the relic nature of that flora.

The opportunity of figuring Retzia capensis here was afforded by T. P.

Stokoe, who has previously contributed many other particularly interesting

plants from the south-western Cape flora. This material arrived in January

1943, a few days subsequent to its collection on the bank of the Palmiet

River in the Caledon district, where it favours open situations.

Unfortunately, owing to lack of literature it has not been possible to

compare our figures with any of those previously published, except that in

Marloth’s Flora. Earlier descriptions do not entirely accord with the

material examined in the National Herbarium, all of which agreed closely

with the figured specimen (other specimens examined include : Caledon,

Dec. 1896, Bolus; Caledon, Jan. 1929, Marloth; Bredasdorp, Jan. 1931,

Galpin, 11,241). The main differences from previous descriptions are in

the ovary and anthers. The latter are described as slightly sagittate,

whereas those examined have the anthers divided to their middle to the

point of attachment of the filament. The ovary is described as 2 -celled,

with 2-3 ovules in each cell. In our material the ovary is divided by

a basal septum, while in the upper portion there exists a rib along each

wall projecting towards, but not fused in, the middle. Thus the two ovules

directed upwards (see Fig. 6) may be seen from either side of the ovary,

together with one basal ovule, and may then give the impression that each

so-called ovary chamber contains 3 ovules. Ripe capsules have not been

examined, nor have mature seeds been seen.

As regards the Plate and description in Marloth’s Flora, it would seem

that the description was mainly taken from earlier work, since it repeats,

p. 122, that the anthers are shortly sagittate, whereas the fig. A2, agreeing

with ours, shows the anthers divided to the middle ; further, fig. A4, of the

ovary which Marloth says is diagrammatic and “ in nature ovules erect ”,

except for the completed septum, agrees with ours in the position of the

ovules. It is suggested that the arrangement of the 4 ovules and division

of the anthers are constant in Retzia, and that the discrepancies in descrip-

tions are due to faulty observation.

Description : — Am erect, rigidly branched shrub about 2-4 ft., rarely

6 ft. high. Branches densely villous when young, glabrescent with age as the

leaves fall. Leaves, the lower ones green, orange-tipped; the younger

ones progressively more orange, densely crowded, verticillate, sessile,

3-5-6 cm. long, about 3 mm. broad about the middle, linear-lanceolate, acute

or subacute, spreading erect and slightly incurved, villous and ciliate towards

the base, glabrescent above; the margins strongly recurved and with the

broadly prominent midrib below forming two villous tubular cavities along

the lower surface. Bracts below the flowers leaf- like but broader towards

the base than the leaves and more villous; Bracteoles subtending each

flower about 2-5-3 cm. long, more delicate than bracts, villous. Flowers

several together, densely clustered on abbreviated shoots, opening one or two

at a time, sessile, erect. Calyx about 2-5 cm. long, with unequal villous

linear- lanceolate lobes ; tube cylindric, about 1 cm. long. Corolla tubular,

with the tubular part reddish -orange on the outer surface, paler on the

inner and with the lobes dark purple, with a dense tuft of white hairs obscuring

the tips, about 4-5 cm. long, 6-7 mm. in diameter; tube about 3-5-4 cm.

long, ribbed from the sinuses ; lobes 5 (said rarely to be 6-7) about 1 cm.

long. Stamens as many as and shorter than the corolla-lobes, inserted at the

tops of the corolla-tube near the sinuses ; filaments short ; anthers sagittate

half their length, versatile. Disc small. Ovary incompletely 2-chambered,

ovate-acuminate ; style becoming filiform ; stigma scarcely dilated, shortly

2-lobed; ovules 4, 2 on each side of the placenta, one of each directed

upwards and one downwards ; placenta extending half the length of the ovary

from the base and incompletely septate in the upper half ; the upper portion

elongating more than the lower with age. (National Herbarium, Pretoria,

No. 27,182). — R. A. Dyer.

Plate 942. — Fig. 1, flowering branch life size; 2, tip of leaf showing

strongly recurved margins, X 3 ; 2a, cross-section of leaf, X 5 ; 3, calyx

and bracteole, X 3 ; 4, corolla slightly enlarged ; 5, young bud, x 8 ; 5a,

stamen, x 8 ; 6, ovary opened to show ovules with septum in lower portion

and incomplete development in upper portion, x 8 ; 7, cross-section of

basal portion of ovary, x 10 ; 8, cross-section of upper portion of ovary,

incompletely septate, x 10 ; 9, ovary with basal disc, X 8 ; 10, habit.

F.P.S.A , July, 1944.

94-3

H. Brown del.

Plate 943.

SCILLA COOPERI.

Natal.

LlLIACEAE.

Scilla ( Ledebouria ) Cooperi Hook fil. in Bot. Mag. t. 5580 (1866) ;

Baker in FI. Cap. 6, 486 (1896-1897).

The specimen here figured was collected along the river

near Estcourt, Natal, where it comes up in clumps during the

summer. It flowered in Pietermaritzburg in September

1943. It has also been found near Howick.

While it resembles S. saturata Bale, in its ligulate leaves,

its moist habitat, its rather evenly-coloured segments, and in

having stamens distinctly shorter than the segments, it differs

in having a discoid widening at the base of the ovary, which is

more characteristic of other species. Hooker cites the

Orange Free State as its habitat, but there may be some doubt

about this, as in the case of other plants collected by Cooper.

Description : — Bulb whitish, about 3 cm. in diam. ;

often growing in clusters. Leaves about 4, linear-lanceolate,

up to about 20 cm. long and 2 cm. wide near the base, marked

at their base on the underside by longitudinal purple veins,

between which are small purple spots linearly arranged,

partially angled along a thickened mid-vein. Inflorescence

(1-3) somewhat shorter than leaves. Raceme cylindric-

pyramidal, about 5 cm. long, about 50 flowers. (The plate in

Curtis’s Botanical Magazine shows nearly all the flowers open

simultaneously, a condition only obtained in this genus when

bulbs with racemes about to flower are removed from the soil.)

Flowers a deep reddish-purple. Pedicel about 5 mm. long,

subtended by minute wisps of thin bract-substance, pinkish.

Segments about 5 mm. long and 1 mm. wide, reddish-purple

with a slightly paler margin ; paler on reverse side. Filaments

shorter than the perianth-segments, of the same colour ;

anthers covered by yellow pollen. Ovary shortly stipitate,

6-lobed, discoidally widened at base; style reddish-purple,

reaching as far as stamens. (F. van der Merwe 2540 in

National Herbarium, Pretoria 27,186). — F. Z. vax dee

Merwe.

Plate 943. — Fig. 1, plant, natural size; 2, flowers, enlarged; 3, plant,

reduced; 4, longitudinal section of flower; 5, ovary from side; 6, ovary,

transverse section; 7, part of axis, showing bracts, all enlarged.

F.P.S.A., July, 1944.

9A4-

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Plate 944.

SCILLA ASPERIFOLIA.

Natal.

Liliaceae.

Scilla ( Ledebouria ) asperifolia F. van der Merwe, sp. nov., speciebus

aliis foliis typicis asperis plerumque subtus diffuse purpureis immaculatis

differt.

Bulbus oblongus, circiter 4 cm. diametro ; folia lanceolata, ad 4, erecto-

patentia, circiter 2-5 cm. medio lata et ad 10 cm. longa, satis aspera, subtus

basin versus diffuse purpurea ; racemi 1-2, circiter 50-flori ; pedicellus albus

vel pallide roseus, bractea membranacea parva subtenta ; segmenta con-

niventia dein recurvata, pallide viridia vel brunnea, marginibus palli-

dioribus ; filamenta erecta, purpurea, segmenta aequantia ; ovarium

breviter stipitatum, discoideo-ampliatum, 6-ovulatum; stylus purpureus.

Natal : Ladysmith, Nov., v. d. Merwe 2604 and in National Herb.

Pretoria No. 27,185.

The species of Scilla here figured was collected from one

of the hillsides at Ladysmith, where it grows plentifully.

It also occurs in various other parts of Natal, such as Bloed-

rivier, Pongola, Estcourt, Vryheid and Albert Falls. It is

characterised by leaves which do not look glossy, and which

are slightly rough to the touch. This roughness is due not to

pubescence but to minute asperities along the venation.

In addition, typical plants show no spots on the leaves, but a

purple flush on their lower surface. When the plant grows in

unusually shady places, the leaves may be very big, and rather

more glossy. In addition, the purple stain is not inevitably

present; and very rarely colonies of plants are encountered

with spotted leaves.

Description : — Bulb about 4 cm. diameter, covered with

thin dry leaves. Leaves about 4, rather rough to the touch

on both surfaces, nearly always unspotted, but very often

stained purple on the underside towards the base. Inflor-

escence 1-2 scapes, about as long as the leaves; racemes

dense, up to about 50 flowers. Pedicels subtended by fine

membranous bracts, whitish. Perianth-segments first con-

nivent to form a deep cup, then recurved, dull greenish-

brown with paler margins. Filaments as long as the perianth-

segments, deep maroon -purple. Ovary shortly stipitate, dis-

coidally widened at the base ; style purple.

Plate 944. — Fig. 1, plant in flower, natural size; 2, flower, enlarged;

3, immature fruit, enlarged; 4, longitudinal section of flower enlarged;

5, part of axis with bracts, enlarged ; 6, cross-section of leaf showing parallel

rows of minute asperities, x6; 7, longitudinal section of leaf showing a

single row of asperities on upper and lower surface, x 8 ; 8, upper surface

of leaf seen obliquely, x 6.

F.P.S.A., July, 1944.

E K Bergen del.

A W.DarnsU Jith

Plate 945.

ALOE CANDELABRUM.

Natal.

Liliaceae.

Aloe candelabrum Berger, in Notizblatt Kgl. Bot. Gart. u. Mua.

Berlin 4, 246 (1906) ; Das Pflanzenr, Aloineae 306 (1908).

Several arborescent species of Aloe occur in abundance

in different parts of the country, and always give a distinctive

character to their surroundings. A. candelabrum Berger is

common in Natal on the warm hillsides of the Umkomaas

and Umlaas River Valleys. It is the dominant winter-

flowering species on the hills at Otto’s Bluff, near Pieter-

maritzburg, from which locality the specimen figured was

collected by Dr. F. Z. van der Merwe in July 1943 and this

account is based mainly on his notes. The species was first

described in 1906 by Berger from cultivated specimens from

the Durban Botanic Gardens ( Wood 4345).

It seems correct to say that A. ferox Mill, and the variety

Galpini Reynolds are the nearest affinities of E. candelabrum.

It differs from them in the bulkier, more spreading and generally

less spiny leaves, in the more divaricately branched inflor-

escence, and, most noteworthy, in the tips of the three revolute

inner segments of the perianth being whitish (not light to dark

brownish, as in A. ferox). In addition, the racemes are often

longer and the central terminal one taller than the others,

which is not so generally noticed in A. ferox Mill.

When Berger revised the genus Aloe for Das Pflanzenreich

in 1908, he based his decisions of nomenclature in some cases

on cultivated specimens, which did not always agree with the

descriptions of the types. One misidentification resulting

from this was in connection with A. ferox described by Miller

in 1768. Berger evidently based his conception of this species

largely on a specimen from near Ladysmith, Natal, an un-

explored area in Miller’s time. In a contribution to the

Journal of South African Botany, July 1934, Mr. G. W.

Reynolds gave a detailed analysis of the probable identity

in the wild state of A. ferox Miller (non Berger), and gave the

new name A. spectabilis to the plant incorrectly classified by

Berger as A. ferox. There is no doubt that typical A. ferox

Mill, originated from the Cape Province and not from Natal.

A. spectabilis Reynolds differs from A. candelabrum in its

shorter and somewhat obliquely spreading racemes, with the

tips of the inner perianth segments dark purplish to black,

instead of whitish.

Since Berger compared his A. candelabrum with A.

africana (an eastern Cape Province species), it may be as well

to point out that the latter differs considerably in its less

robust habit and in the longer and markedly curved flowers

(see Plate 333). On Plate 169 of this work a cultivated plant

was figured as A. ferox Mill. Whether or not the identifica-

tion is strictly correct is now difficult to decide but the

distribution record of the “ midlands of Natal ” (taken from

Berger) does not apply to our present concept of A. ferox

Mill.

Description : — Stem unbranc-hed, covered with dry leaves up to a

height of 6 feet, surmounted by a dense crown of very fleshy green leaves.

Leaves spreading, lanceolate, up to 1 metre long and 15 cm. broad near the

base, slightly canaliculate above, convex below, the margins armed with small

brown spines at regular intervals, the upper and under surfaces more often

without spines, but sometimes fairly densely covered with these. Scape

usually single, dividing low down into a number of erect much elongated

racemes. (The raceme here figured half natural size was, for reasons of space,

the shortest available.) Racemes cylindric, up to about 50 cm. in length and

10 cm. in diameter, with densely-packed flowers ; the racemes of different

plants varying in colour from salmon-pink to a deep brownish-pink, some-

times orange-scarlet, with intermediate shades. Scape below the raceme

has a number of dried deltoid-acuminate bracts, about 3 x 10 mm.

Pedicel short, about 5 mm. long, subtended by a small dry ovate-acuminate

bract about 10 mm. long and 4 mm. wide at its base. Perianth clavate-

cylindric, about 30 mm. long, slightly recurved : segments connate for nearly

half their length, salmon-pink to brownish-pink with paler margins, tips

recurved, the inner three greenish. Stamens exserted for about 1 cm.,

orange-pink with golden-yellow anthers. Style finally as long as stamens

(van der Merwe 2666 and in National Herbarium, Pretoria, No. 27,164). —

R. A. Dyer.

Plate 945. — Fig. 1, inflorescence, x \ ; 2, section from middle of leaf,

X J ; 3, flower, x 1 ; 4, immature fruit ; 5, bract, x 2 6, longitudinal

section of flower, slightly enlarged; 7, tip of outer perianth-segment, back

view, slightly enlarged ; 8, ovary and style, slightly enlarged ; 9, habit.

F.P.S.A., July, 1944.

.

Q

94-6

Plate 946.

PLECTRANTHUS SPICIEORMIS.

Transvaal.

Labiatae.

Plectranthus spiciformis R. A. Dyer sp. nov. ; affinis P. densifloro

T. Cooke et P. glomerato nom. nov. ( = P. villosus T. Cooke 1909 non

Sieber 1832), ab illo colore corollae ab hoc minus villosis ab ambobus in-

florescentia rariter ramosa differt.

Herba perennis pubescens, basi foliosa ramosa, usque 1 m. alta. Folia

usque 5 cm. longa, 3-5 cm. lata, obovato-oblonga, crenata, basi cuneata,

utrinque breviter pubescentia. Inflorescentia 12-35 cm. longa, rariter ramosa,

racemo spiciforme; pseudoverticilli multiflori, densi, villosi. Bracteae

basi inflorescentiae 8-17 mm. longae, 9-11 mm. latae, late ovatae vel subor-

biculares, pilosae. Pedicelli 2-4 mm. longi. Calyx villosus, 2-3 mm.

longus; dens superior 1-5 mm. longus, triangulari-ovatus ; later ales 1 mm.

longi ; infimi minores. Corolla lilacina, 5 mm. longa, basi leviter deflexa ;

tubus 3 mm. longus, dilatatus, fauce 1-75 diametro ; labium superius 0-75 mm.

longum ; labium inferius 2 mm. longum, 1-5 mm. latum, naviculare. Stamina

superiora 2-75-3 mm. longa ; inferiora 3-5-4 mm. longa. Nuculae brunneae,

0-75-1 mm. longae, 0-5-0-75 mm. latae, leves, angulares.

Transvaal : Pretoria district ; Hamanskraal, Mogg in National Her-

barium, Pretoria, 27,138 (type, cult.); Pietersburg district; Pole Evans

2663 ; Lydenburg district ; Sekukuniland, Barnard 420.

The type specimen of P. spiciformis was originally collected

3 miles south of Hamanskraal, in the Pretoria district, Trans-

vaal. It was cultivated at the Division of Botany and

Plant Pathology, where it flowered and was figured in March

1943. Unfortunately the plant did not survive the following

winter, during which some comparatively heavy frosts were

experienced (14° F.). The spike-like racemes with their

innumerable small flowers are quite decorative, and suitable

for rockeries.

The flowers of the species related to P. spiciformis are so

small and congested that it is difficult to evaluate the specific

importance of minute differences in the size and shape of

flowers. Although only two species were classified by Cooke

under the section Stachyanthi in the Flora Capensis, 1910,

it would not be surprising if several more have to be added

when a more intense study of the group is made. P. spicatus

E. Meyer and its allies would be better classified nearer to that

group than they are by Cooke. At one time our plant was

regarded as a form of P. densijlorus Cooke, and also closely

related to P. villosus Cooke. It differs from both these in the

usually unbranched inflorescence and in small differences in

the flowers. Further, it differs from the former in the colour

of the flowers (yellow in P. densiflorus), and from the latter in

pubescence, being villous only on the inflorescence.

Incidentally the name P. villosus Cooke, 1909, was ante-

dated by Sieber in 1832, who used the name for a different

plant. Hence a new name must be given to the South

African plant, for which P. glomeratus R. A. Dyer is pro-

posed. It is of interest to note that the name P. villosus

was given to yet another plant by Carl Christensen. To that

plant E. A. Bruce gave the new name P. arabicus in Kew

Bulletin, 1935.

Description : — Perennial herb, freely branched at the base into tufts

or clumps with flowering branches up to about 3 ft. high. Branches her-

baceous, becoming woody with age, leafy at the base, with more distant

pairs of leaves towards the inflorescence. Leaves variable in size and some-

what in shape, those at the base of the branches being smaller than those

above which are up to 5 cm. long and 3-5 cm. broad and those towards the

inflorescence also being smaller, obovate-oblong, cuneate, sessile or sometimes

contracted into a short petiole, fleshy, folded upwards, with the margin

crenate in the upper half, shortly pubescent on both surfaces. Inflorescence

a spike-like raceme, unbranched or sparsely branched, 10-35 cm. long, with

internodes 1-5-3 cm. long at the base and gradually shorter towards the apex

until the flower clusters become crowded. Bracts below the inflorescence

8-17 mm. long, 9-11 mm. broad and the upper ones about 6 mm. long, 3 mm.

broad, broadly ovate to suborbicular, acute, fleshy, finely pubescent with

short hairs on both surfaces, concave. Flower-clusters densely many-

flowered, opposite, in alternate pairs on the stem, each composed of 2 to

several very short racemes, villous. Pedicels up to 4 mm. long, villous.

Calyx in flower 2-3 mm. long to the tip of the upper lobe ; tube oblique,

1-1-5 mm. long along the top and 0-5 mm. long along the bottom side,

villous, 5-toothed; upper tooth triangular- ovate to ovate-oblong, 1-5 mm.

long; lateral teeth 1 mm. long, acute; lowest teeth 0-5 mm. long; calyx

in fruit erect, up to 4 mm. long. Corolla lilac and white, 5 mm. long, 1-75 mm.

diameter at the throat; upper lip lilac with white margin, emarginate,

reflexed, 0-75 mm. long, 2 mm. broad, sparsely villous on the outer surface;

lateral lobes lilac with white margin, 0-5 mm. long, 1-5 mm. broad, glabrous;

lower lip lilac-tinged, 2 mm. long, 1-5 mm. broad, concave, sparsely villous

on the under surface. Stamens decimate; upper pair 2-75-3 mm. long;

lower pair 2-5-4 mm. long; filaments glabrous. Style exserted slightly

beyond stamens; stigma bilobed. Nutlets smooth, brown, 0-75 mm. long,

05 mm. broad, flat on outer surface, convex and slightly angled on the inner

face. — R. A. Dyer.

Plate 946. — Fig. 1 , pair of leaves, natural size ; 2, inflorescence, branching

due to injury to main axis, natural size ; 3, portion of flower cluster, x 3 ;

4, flower, x 10 ; 5, calyx, x 10 ; 6, young nutlets, x 10 ; 7, habit,

F.P.S.A., July, 1944,

a -4 7

Plate 947.

SCILLA ALBOMARGINATA.

Natal.

Liliaceae.

Scilla ( Ledebouria ) albomarginata F. van der Merwe sp. nov., a

S. ovatifolia Bak. foliis marginatis et bulbo vix cicatricoso differt.

Buluus ad 8 mm. diametro ; folia ad 6, plana, primum cordata dein

rotundata, carnosula, ad terram valde appressa, viridia maculis nigrescentibus

grandibus picta, marginibus albidis coriaceis; scapi ad 2, breves, racemis

densis ad 50-floribus ; pedicelli bracteis parvis membranaceis ad basi

circumdati, circiter 15 mm. longi ; segmenta perianthii basin versus con-

niventia dein reflexa violacea ad margines albida ; filamenta laete violacea,

filiformia, segmentis aequantia, antheris luteis ; ovarium breviter stipitatum,

basin versus discoideum ampliatum, 6-lobatum, stylo antheris aequante.

Natal : in collibus prope Umzinto, Novem., v. d. Merwe 2669 and in

National Herb. 27,189.

This species is closely allied to S. ovatifolia Bale., from which

it is distinguished by the whitish coriaceous margins of the

leaves, and the fact that the bulb does not show such definite

fleshy scales. The large cloudy blackish blotches on the leaves

and the bright bluish, rather than purple, stamens give it a

distinctive and not unpleasing appearance.

The plant here figured was collected by the author on a

grassy hillside a few miles north of Umzinto, Natal, and

flowered in September 1943 in Pietermaritzburg.

Description : — Bulb somewhat flattened above, sur-

rounded by thin dried leaf remnants. Leaves about six,

flatly appressed to the ground, arranged in a geometrical

pattern of three inner ones, cordate-ovate, and three outer

ones, ovate-circular, up to about 8 cm. in diameter, deep

green with large blackish patches, and coriaceous whitish

margins about 1-5 mm. wide. Inflorescence of 1 or 2 scapes;

axis short ; raceme dense, spherico-pyramidal, about 50

flowers. Pedicel subtended by one or two minute membranous

bracts, about 6 mm. long. Perianth-segments first connivent,

then recurved, each about 5 mm. long and 1 mm. wide, ligulate,

bluish-purple with whitish margins. Filaments erect, as

long as segments, bluish-purple ; pollen yellowish. Ovary

shortly stipitate, 6-lobed, discoidally widened at base; style

purple, as long as the filaments.

Plate 947. — Fig. 1, plant from above (natural size) ; 2, flower ; 3, segment

wdth anther ; 4, gynoecium (side view) ; 5, ovary from above ; 6, transverse

section of flower (2-6 enlarged) .

F.P.S.A., July, 1944.

Plate 948.

SCILLA ELEVANS.

Natal.

Liliaceae.

Scilla ( Ledebouria ) elevans F. van der Merwe sp. nov., a S. ovatifolia

Bak. foliis elongatis haud ad terram appressis infra atropurpureis differt.

Bulbus ad 4 cm. diametro cicatricibus carnosis notatus ; folia 4-6 post

inflorescentia conspicua carnosula ovata lanceolata plana sed supra ali-

quantum late canaliculata marginibus integris apicibus vix acutis supra

viridia subtus praesertim atropurpurea ; inflorescentiae ad 2 ; scapus ad 4 cm.

longus ; racemus cylindraceus, densus, circiter 4 cm. longus et 3 cm. diametro ;

pedlcellus ad 1 cm. longus, bracteis parvis membranaceis instructus; seg-

menta ligulato- acuminata, circiter 5 mm. longa et 1-5 mm. lata, basin versus

conniventia dein recurvata, brunneo-viridia, ad margines rosea ; filamentum

segmento aequans purpureum ; ovarium breviter stipitatum, globosum,

6-sulcatum, basin versus discoideo-ampliatum, ovulis 6 ; stylus purpureus.

Natal : Vryheid, v. d. Merwe 2677 and in National Herb. 27,188.

This plant was found in flower on rocky hillsides near

Vryheid, where it is very plentiful. While at first sight it

seems to resemble S. ovatifolia Bak., yet the leaves habitually

elongate and raise themselves above the ground, hence the

name. In the description of S. ovatifolia, Plate 830, it was

pointed out that in very grassy or shady localities the leaves

might also be found erect or semi-erect but that this is not a

characteristic of the species.

Description : — Bulb about 4 cm. in diameter, somewhat

elongated, showing the typical fleshy leaf-scars also found in

S. ovatifolia and to a lesser degree in 8. cicatricosa. Leaves

developing after the inflorescence, 4-6, elongate-ovate, slightly

fleshy, shallowly canaliculate on their upper surfaces, with

even, entire margins and somewhat rounded points, green on

the upper surface and deep purple on the under surface.

Inflorescences about 2, scape short; raceme short, dense,

cylindric, about 4 cm. long and 2-5 cm. in diameter. Pedicel

up to 1 cm. long, subtended by minute membranous bract-

remains. Perianth-segments hgulate-acuminate, about 1*5 mm.

wide and 5 mm. long, forming the typical campamilate perianth

of this subgenus, brownish-green ^ith pinkish margins.

Filaments about as long as the segments, purple. Ovary

shortly stipitate, 6-grooved, discoidally widened at the base,

3-chambered with 2 collateral ovules in each chamber; style

purple.

Plate 948. — Fig. 1, plant, natural size; 2, leaves, fully developed, under

and upper surfaces; 3, flower; 4, segment with anther; 5, ovary from

side; 6, ovary from above (2~6 enlarged).

F.P.S.A., July, 1944.

E. K. Burges del.

A. W. Darnell lith.

Plate 949.

EULOPHIA PAPILLOSA.

Cape Province, Natal, Transvaal, Rhodesia.

Orchid ace ae .

Eulophia papillosa (Rolfe) Schlechter in Engl. Jahrb. 20, Beibl. 50,

25 (1895) in note ; Rolfe in El. Cap. 5, 3, 49 (1912) ; Bolus Orchid. S. Afr. 3.

t. 6 (1913).

The specimens figured here were collected by our artist at

the end of December 1943, on the Clan Syndicate Estate

between Pietermaritzburg and Greytown, in the midlands

of Natal. Plants were fairly numerous there in grassveld.

The species has a wide distribution in Natal, and is recorded

to the south-west in the eastern Cape Province in swamps by

the mouth of the Bashee River, and to the north from several

stations in the eastern Transvaal. Other records locate

Eulophia papillosa in Southern Rhodesia and Portuguese

East Africa. The yellow flowers are relatively small, but are

attractive in their moderately dense spikes. Flowers vary

from 1*25 to 1*5 cm. long, and there seems to be some vari-

ability in the shape of the lip. Plants may reach a height of

3 feet, although the average is about 2 feet. In the key in the

Flora Capensis, Rolfe distinguishes E. papillosa by its yellow

flowers in cylindric spikes. It should be noted, though, that

the young spikes are pyramidal, as shown in our figure, and

only become cylindric when the upper flowers open.

In 1897 Kranzlin founded the species E. aurea on a speci-

men collected by Junod (187) in white sand at Delagoa Bay.

In 1920 De Wildeman cited Junod 187 and 397 in Bulletin

Jardin Botanique under the older name E. papillosa, but

without reference to the description of E. aurea by Kranzlin.

No material of Junod 187 was available to Rolfe for comparison

with typical E. papillosa, nor is any authentically named

material of E. aurea known to exist in a South African her-

barium. De Wildeman published paintings of dissections of

the Junod specimens he examined, and some slight differences

in the lobing of the lip exist between them. Bolus’s and our

plates. Whether or not E. aurea should be regarded as a

form of E. papillosa is a question for future research.

The genus Eulophia, consisting of about two hundred

species, over seventy of which occur in South Africa, has been

figured in these pages on thirteen previous occasions.

Description : — A slender, stiffly erect terrestrial herb with

a jointed rhizomatous rootstock. Leaves 1-3, erect, plicate,

linear, acute, 30-60 cm. long and up to about T25 cm. broad,

enclosed in membranous sheaths below. Scape lateral, stiffly

erect, averaging about 60 cm. tall, occasionally up to 1 metre,

with several membranous sheaths ; the uppermost acuminate,

extending to within a short distance from the base of the

inflorescence. Spikes at first pyramidal, later as upper flowers

open becoming cylindric, 15-25-flowered, moderately dense;

bracts at the base T5-2 cm. long, lanceolate, aristate, rather

shorter than the pedicels and enclosing them in the lower

portion. Flowers yellow with purple marking on the side

lobes of the lip and on the column, about T25 cm. long;

pedicels (ovaries) 1 •5-1*76 cm. long. Sepals somewhat spread-

ing, subequal, about T25 long, ovate-oblong, acute, keeled

down the back; Petals ovate-elliptic, acute, slightly shorter

than the sepals ; lip 1 cm. long, equal in length to the petals,

3-lobed ; side lobes ovate-obtuse, 2 mm. long, folded upwards ;

front lobe rounded and narrowed at the base ; the margin

sparsely toothed on the sides, with a recurved apiculus giving

it an emarginate appearance and with conspicuous papillae

on the face and minutely pubescent on the base of the papillae

and with a pair of parallel lamellae at the base. Column

about 7 mm. long, arched above the lip. (National Herbarium,

Pretoria No. 27,184.) — R. A. Dyer.

Plate 949. — Pig. 1, inflorescences and leaf natural size; 2, flower and

bud, xl-5; 3, lip, x4-5; 4, column, x4-5; 5, pollen masses, xl5; 6,

habit.

F.P.S.A., July, 1944.

9-50

E.K.Bur^es del.

A W. Darnell lith.

Plate 950.

LACHENALIA GLAUCINA.

Cape Province.

Liliaceae.

Lachenalia glaucina Jacq. Collect. Suppl. 59; Icon. 2, 16. t. 391

(1786-95) ; Baker in FI. Cap. 6, 426 (1896-97).

Considering that Lachenalia glaucina is a well-known

species of the south-western Cape Province, and of the Cape

Peninsula in particular, and one which has been figured several

times in early botanical literature, the desirability of adding

a further coloured plate may be questioned. The colour and

marking of the flowers vary considerably in the species, as also

the length and spotting of the leaves. In these respects the

present form is distinctive ; rarely are such intensely coloured

flowers observed. Other specimens collected on the same oc-

casion by Dr. F. Z. van der Merwe in September, 1943, on the

Cape Peninsula near Devil’s Peak had lighter-coloured flowers,

longer and less spotted or unspotted leaves, thus more closely

resembling the plate by Jacquin in his leones Plantarum

Rariorum t. 391 (1786-93).

Whether or not all the plants and figures cited under

the name Lachenalia glaucina by Baker in the Flora Capensis

6 (1896-97) are rightly classified it is not possible to judge in

present circumstances, but there is no doubt that the natural

variability of the plants misled some of the early botanists,

who had but few or only single specimens on which to base their

opinions. Several species of Lachenalia have been figured

previously in these pages, and they should be compared as a

matter of interest.

For nearly two hundred years species of Lachenalia as

well as many other S.A. bulbous plants have been popular pot

plants in European gardens. There is every justification for

a more general interest in them in local collections, since in

colour and ease of cultivation they compare very favourably

with many an exotic rival.

Description : — Bulbous 'plant up to about 20 cm. tall.

Bulb subglobose, 1-2 cm. in diameter and slightly less in height,

covered by a membranous tunic. Leaves 2, with red to dark-

brown blotches and horizontal stripes below, and sometimes

with a few blotches on the upper surface, slightly glaucous,

clasping the peduncle for 2-5-3 cm. at the base, the lower one

oblong-lanceolate or lorate, 8-15 cm. long and 2-2-5 cm. broad,

the upper leaf narrower than the lower one and more acuminate,

occasionally slightly crisped or undulate on the margin.

Scape with large reddish-brown blotches, somewhat glaucous,

12-20 cm. tall, with the inflorescence occupying about half its

length or less, flattened above each flower and thus irregularly

angled ; spike 25-50-flowered, moderately dense ; bracts

about 5 mm. long, acuminate or subulate from an ovate base,

spreading-recurved. Flowers sessile or subsessile; perianth

united into a very short tube at the base, oblong-cylindric,

1 -4 — 1-5 cm. long, 4—5 mm. in diameter; outer perianth-

segments light blue with darker blotches, purple tipped,

oblong-ovate, 9-10 mm. long, 4—5 mm. broad, with a small

transverse ridge behind the apex ; inner segments with the

exposed portion purple, oblong-spathulate, with spreading tips,

1-3-1 -4 cm. long, 5 mm. broad near the apex, slightly keeled,

apex often emarginate, the lowest with margins folded up-

wards. Filaments arising from near the base of the perianth-

segments and nearly as long as them. Ovary 4 mm. long,

oblong, deeply grooved between the carpels and slightly so

down their backs ; style 6 mm. long, slender, tapering gradu-

ally to the small granulated stigma. (National Herbarium,

Pretoria, No. 27,179.) — R. A. Dyer.

Plate 950. — Fig. 1, plant natural size; 2, flower, x 2\ ; 3, longitudinal

section of flower, x 3%.

F.P.S.A., July, 1944.

95/

Plate 951.

CHIRONIA HUMILIS.

Transvaal, O.F.S., Bechuanaland, Rhodesia.

Gentianeae.

Chironia humilis Gilg in Engl. Bot. Jahrb. 26, 105 (1899); Baker and

Brown in FI. Trop. Afr. 4, 1, 555 (1903) ; Hill and Prain in FI. Cap. 4, 1,

1106 (1909).

As with most annual plants, there is quite a considerable

variation in the robustness of individual members of this

species. It depends mainly on the habitat conditions under

which the plants grow. This variability has resulted in some

workers describing different forms as distinct species. Baker

and Brown in Flora of Tropical Africa, 1903, regarded C.

Wilmsii as synonymous with C. humilis Gilg, and observed

no varietal forms, while Hill and Prain, in Flora Capensis

1909, compromised by accepting a variety Wilmsii, based on

C. Wilmsii Gilg. We agree with the former interpretation

of the species.

The species is common in many localities of the Transvaal,

occurring also in the northern portion of the Orange Free

State, Bechuanaland and extending into Rhodesia. The

plants figured were collected by Mr. A. O. D. Mogg, in January

1944, on the Rietvlei Pasture Research Station, near Pretoria.

It was locally abundant in alluvial soil with a clay foundation.

It thrives also in the wild state in sandy loams.

The flowering period of individual plants of Chironia

humilis is not more than a few weeks, otherwise it would be

a most desirable plant for cultivation. It might be possible

by selection and breeding to obtain a strain more satisfactory

for this purpose. On present experience it would seem un-

satisfactory as a cut flower also, since it does not last well in

water after being plucked.

Description : — Annual herb, tufted from the base, 20-45

cm. tall, with a few or several branches from the basal rosette

of leaves. Leaves of rosette oblanceolate to oblong- or linear-

lanceolate, up to 5-5 cm. long, 8 mm. broad; cauline leaves

in 3-6 distant pairs, up to 3-5 cm. long, 4 mm. broad, linear,

acute. Scape s slightly angular, up to 35 cm. tall, branched,

terminating in 2-3 laxly branched cymes. Bracts leaf-like,

but smaller and gradually reduced in size to the ultimate

flowers with bracteoles shorter than the calyx-segments.

Calyx divided almost to the base ; segments about 1 cm. long,

linear-lanceolate, with a thickened central vein and a narrow

membranous margin. Corolla 1-5-1 -7 cm. long, with a

greenish basal tube and magenta lobes; tube campanulate,

about 2 mm. diameter, 3 mm. long, lobes spreading, 1*2-1 -4

cm. long, 4-5 cm. broad, oblong-lanceolate acute. Filaments

inserted on the throat of the corolla tube, alternating with

the lobes but asymmetrically disposed ; anthers spiral, 2-2-5

mm. long. Ovary obtusely 5-angled or 5-grooved, 5 mm.

long; style cylindric, 7 mm. long; stigmatic surface 1 mm.

long, on two sides of the apex minutely pubescent. (National

Herbarium, Pretoria, No. 27,190.) — R. A. Dyer.

Plate 951. — Pig. 1, branch from near base of plant; la, flower slightly

enlarged ; 2, sepal, x 5 ; 3, longitudinal section of corolla, X 4 ; 4, anther

with part of filament, X 6 ; 5, gynoecium, x 5; 6, habit.

F.P.S.A., October 1944.

952

Plate 952.

GYMNOSTEPHIUM CORYMBOSUM.

Cape Province.

COMPOSITAE.

Gymnostephium corymbosum (Turcz.) Harv. FI. Cap. 3, 68 (1864-65).

The accompanying plate introduces a rare member of the

south-western Cape flora. The material was collected by the

veteran mountaineer, Mr. T. P. Stokoe, to whom volume 5

is dedicated. He collected it in September 1943 near a stream

in the River Zondereinde Mountains, Caledon district, at an

altitude of about 3000 ft. It is not possible to give a habit

figure of the plant, because Mr. Stokoe was unable to obtain

photographic material, a small inconvenience imposed by war

conditions.

Some difficulty has been experienced in classifying the

material forwarded by Mr. Stokoe, since it did not agree

exactly with any published description. The ray florets were

found to possess a pappus of barbellate bristles which very

readily fell off when the heads were dissected. It was found

to agree with a duplicate of Zeyher 2741 in the National

Herbarium, the type number of Gymnostephium corymbosum,

collected near the River Zondereinde more than one hundred

years ago. Both Professor R. H. Compton and Mr. N. S.

Pillans, who were consulted, agreed to the identification with

G. corymbosum. The latter submitted a note as follows : “I

have examined the type numbers of G. angustifolium Harv.

{Zeyher 2743) and G. corymbosum Harv. {Zeyher 2741) in the

South African Museum, Cape Town. Both have a pappus

of barbellate bristles on the ray florets. Bolus 6941, identified

by N. E. Brown as G. ciliare Harv., also has a pappus of

barbellate bristles on the ray florets. Stokoe’s plant is a

good match with the type of G. corymbosum Harv. The point

of importance is the presence of an ample pappus in all the

specimens referred to above, whereas the generic description

of Gymnostephium states that the ray florets are either

wholly without a pappus or with only 1-2 bristles. Without

this character to rely on there is no sharp distinction between

species of Gymnostephium and some species of Aster, such

as A. echinatus Less. If the genus Gymnostephium is to be

retained, emphasis must be placed on the caducous nature of

the pappus of the ray florets. This is yet another problem

for the future when the Asteroideae group is revised as a whole.

Description : — Plant up to 8 ft. high, sparsely branched,

young branches subherbaceous, becoming woody. Branches

stiffly erect, glabrous, leafy to the summit. Leaves 2-5-1 -5

cm. long, up to about 0-75 cm. broad at the base, linear-

subulate, acute, flat, 1-3 nerved, ciliate-serrate, decurrent.

Peduncles 6-12 from the axils of the uppermost leaves,

1-headed, 3-8 cm. long, with several to many leafy bracts

decreasing in size and more widely spaced upwards, roughly

hairy and glandular. Inflorescence corymbose. Capitula

radiate, 3 cm. in diameter including the rays, 1 cm. diameter

excluding them. Involucral bracts fairly rigid, 1-3-seriate,

but nearly all equal in length, up to 8 mm. long, oblong-

linear, roughly pubescent and glandular, with a few long

hairs near the apex, and often black-tipped, slightly keeled

on back. Ray-florets white, about twenty-four in a capitulum,

1*4-1 *6 cm. long, with a slender basal tube 2-3 mm. long and

with the ligulate portion 1*2-1 -3 cm. long and about 3 mm.

broad, minutely 3-toothed at the apex ; tube with a few short

yellowish hairs around the top ; immature achenes flattened,

3*5 mm. long, elliptic-oblong in outline, minutely glandular-

papillose on the sides, and with a thickened glabrous margin,

with a pappus of a single closely set row of barbellate caducous

bristles about the length of the corolla-tube; nearly mature

achene 5 mm. long, 3 mm. broad. Style slightly exserted.

Disc-florets about 4 mm. long, with the tube slender in the

basal 1 mm. and expanded above; achene aborted, glabrous

with a pappus of a few barbellate caducous bristles. (National

Herbarium, Pretoria, No. 27,170.) — R. A. Dyer.

Plate 952. — Fig. 1, top of flowering branch, natural size; 2, involucre,

X 3 ; 3, involucre scale, x 8 ; 4, three young ray florets, X 4 ; 5, disc

floret, x 8 ; 6, pappus bristle, x 8; 7, young achene, back view, X 7 ;

8, mature achene side view, x 4.

F.P.S.A., October 1944.

953

Plate 953.

EUCOMIS POLE-EVANSII .

Transvaal, Swaziland.

Liliaceae.

Eucomis Pole-Evansii N.E. Br. in Gard. Chron. Ser. Ill, 53, 185 (1918).

In some notes on the genus Eucomis, published in S.A.

Gardening and Country Life, Dr. L. Bolus refers to the species

figured here as the “ queen of the genus.” It seems fitting,

then, that this species should be the first to appear in

“ Flowering Plants of South Africa.” An additional reason

for satisfaction at this precedence is that the specific epithet

is in honour of the founder of this publication, Dr. I. B. Pole

Evans. Eucomis Pole-Evansii could also be referred to as

the giant of the genus since it grows up to about 3 ft. tall,

occasionally up to 6 ft., which is considerably taller than any

of the other species. It falls in the section with the cylin-

drical, not clavate, peduncles and among the species which

are in no wise spotted or marked with maroon. The leaves

and the bracts of the coma are green, the peduncle is apple-

green and the general impression of the raceme is creamy-

white to green.

The flowers, which are arranged in spirals and mature

from the bottom of the raceme upwards, are greenish-white

when young with a conspicuous, cream-coloured ovary in the

centre. In his original description Brown gives the colour of

the flower as cream, and even mentions it as a distinguishing

character, but a careful examination of the plants flowering

in these gardens at present shows that while the general effect

is creamy-white the colours are as given above. The matur-

ing flowers turn green and the segments stiffen somewhat but

do not wither or close. The ovary, still conspicuous in the

centre, also turns green, and the whole effect is quite pleasing.

This characteristic adds to the value of the species as a

garden plant, for it considerably lengthens the decorative

period. In the plant figured the raceme is fairly old and

only a few young flowers and buds remain at the top, while

the rest of the raceme (most of it not depicted) bears the

matured green flowers.

The species has been found in the eastern Transvaal and

Swaziland growing along the streams in marshy ground or in

the moist kloofs of the high mountains. The specimen

figured here was originally collected by Dr. F. Z. v. d. Merwe

at Mankaiana, which is south of Mbabane in Swaziland. It

was grown at the Division of Botany and Plant Pathology,

where it was figured in January 1944.

Description : — Leaves green, about 65 cm. long, 15 cm. wide, occa-

sionally larger, broadly strap-shaped, usually broadest just above the middle,

channelled on the inner face with a broad thick midrib which is prominent

dorsally; margins crisped as well as somewhat undulate, except near the

apex, bordered by a very narrow white cartilaginous edge. Inflorescence

about 1 m. high, peduncle apple-green, rigid, cylindric, about 2-2 cm. in

diameter. Raceme about 30 cm. long and 9 cm. in diameter, many-flowered,

crowned by a coma. Bracts of the coma about 30, green, 5-10 cm. long and

1-4-2-5 cm. broad, margin crisped and slightly undulate, very narrowly

bordered by a white cartilaginous edge. Bracts of inflorescence whitish-

green to green, subdistant from the pedicels, those at the base of the raceme

broadly ovate, 13 cm. long and 11 mm. broad, the upper linear-lanceolate

deeply channelled on the inner face and subsaccate about midway, about

22 mm. long and 6 mm. broad. Pedicels green, about 3 cm. long, more

or less patent. Perianth lobed almost to the base; lobes of young flowers

greenish-white, turning definitely green in the older flowers, but not wither-

ing nor closing, about 12 mm. long, 6-5 mm. wide, slightly thickened or

cucullate at the apices. Stamens with greenish-white filaments united at

the base and dorsally fused with the base of the perianth, free portion

flattened, about 6 mm. long — the united part full of nectar. Ovary creamy-

white becoming green, very obtusely and obscurely 3-lobed; the lobes

slightly humped at the top ; style straight, about 5 mm. long. (National

Herbarium, Pretoria, No. 27,203). — I. C. Verdoorn.

Plate 953. — Fig. 1, whole plant, much reduced; 2, pedicel and bract

showing attachment, enlarged; 3, whole flower showing filaments dorsally

fused with perianth base, enlarged; 4, longitudinal section of the perianth

with the gynoecium removed, enlarged ; 5, gynoecium, enlarged.

F.P.S.A., October 1944.

9S4-

A.W. Darned lith,

Plate 954.

EUCOMIS HUMILIS.

Natal, Transvaal.

LlLIACEAE.

Eucomis humilis Bkr., in Kew Bull. 1895, 152; FI. Cap. 6, 476 (1896-7).

The plant figured here has been identified as Eucomis

humilis, which is distinguished among the species with short

pedicels by having purple filaments. This character is sup-

ported by the size and shape of the leaves and inflorescence,

which conform to the original description of the species. The

locality from which our plant comes is similar country to the

type locality — that is, the top of Thabamhlope mountain.

Thabamhlope is in the eastern escarpment near Estcourt in

Natal, while the plant figured here comes from mountainous

country to the east of Ermelo, near the Swaziland border.

In the type description of E. humilis no mention is made

of spots on the upper surface of the leaf, and in the Flora

Capensis it is described as “ tinged with purple.” The bracts

of the coma in both the publications are described as mar-

gined with purple, no mention being made of the spots. In

these two respects the plant here figured does not conform

with E. humilis as described by Baker, but taking everything

else into consideration, the discrepancies do not seem to

warrant exclusion from the species. In support of this it

was noted that some of the plants grown from bulbs of the

same collecting sent with the one from which the plant

figured was produced had the bracts of the coma purple

margined as well as spotted. So it would seem that while

the presence of purple colouring and in some instances even

the parts coloured, such as the filaments, may be of specific

value, this is not always so in regard to the distribution of

the colour.

In the Flora Capensis Baker has quoted a specimen Evans

401, collected in more or less the same region as E. humilis,

under the species E. nana Ait. From a dried specimen of

this in the Natal Herbarium it is difficult to see how this

differs from E. humilis, since the colour of the filaments is

not obvious in the dry state and no supporting character

strikes the eye. Field work would be necessary to establish

whether they differ specifically and in what respects, besides

the colour of the filaments. In the National Herbarium,

Pretoria, several specimens from the Drakensberg and Basuto-

land have been named E. nana (probably from the key in

FI. Cap.). These specimens do appear to differ from E.

humilis, being smaller and having elliptic, rather than oblong,

leaves. Incidentally it is most improbable that either these

specimens or Evans 401 can be conspecific with the Cape

plant named E. nana and they probably require a new name.

The specimen figured here was grown from one of several

bulbs sent to the Division of Botany and Plant Pathology

by Dr. F. Z. v. d. Merwe, who collected them among rocks

on the farm “ The Gem ” to the east of Ermelo.

Description : — Bulb about 5 cm. diameter, covered by a smooth mem-

branous brown tunic. Leaves 6-8, green, densely spotted dorsally with

maroon, especially towards the base and on the midrib, with the upper

surface conspicuously spotted in the lower half and obscurely in the upper

half, oblong, up to 20 cm. long, 6-5 cm. broad about the middle, tapering

very gradually towards both ends, apex rounded, margin undulate, very

narrowly bordered with a cartilaginous edge. Inflorescence (with coma)

14-20 cm. tall. Peduncle whitish-green, distinctly spotted with large maroon

spots, 7 cm. long excluding the raceme, 1-2 cm. diameter, cyhndric but

tapering to the base. Raceme dense, 6 cm. long and 4 cm. diameter. Coma

of about 20 green bracts, sparsely spotted with maroon, oblong-ovate,

margins somewhat undulate and very narrowly cartilaginous edged, up to

3'5 cm. long and 1-7 cm. broad. Bracts greenish-white sometimes spotted

or tinged with maroon, remote from the pedicels, about 1 cm. long and

5 cm. broad, ovate, ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, shallowly saccate about

the middle, keel decurrent on the peduncle in a very small membranous

ridge, attachment V- or U-shaped. Pedicels 3-5 mm. long, whitish, some-

times spotted with maroon. Perianth about 1-2 cm. long, greenish without

and suffused with purple towards the base, greenish-white or green within ;

segments united at the base, oblong, 9 mm. long, 3-5 mm. broad, with the

apices usually with a thickened or cucullate apicule. Stamens with purple

filaments united at the base for about 2 mm. and fused dorsally with the

base of the perianth ; free portion of filaments about 4 mm. long, lanceolate,

flattened; anthers 1-5 mm. long, pale greenish-yellow. Ovary deep purple,

3-chambered, shallowly 3-lobed with 3 processes towards the apex alter-

nating with the lobes ; style purple, 4-5 mm. long, narrowing to the stigmatic

apex ; ovules, about 6 in each chamber. Capsule deep maroon, shiny green

at the base where the perianth base covered it, obtusely 3-angled with 3

indentations between the angles towards the top. (National Herbarium,

Pretoria, No. 27,204). — I. C. Verdoorn.

Plate 954. — Fig. 1, plant reduced; 2, top of leaf, natural size; 3, flower

and bracts showing attachment of both, enlarged; 4, longitudinal section

of flower with ovary removed, enlarged; 5, section of flower showing

attachment of filament to perianth, enlarged; 6, gynoecium enlarged;

7, longitudinal section of gynoecium, enlarged; 8, capsule taken from

another plant of the same batch several weeks later, slightly enlarged.

F.P.S.A., October 1944.

955

A W. Darnell Jith.

E.K. Buries del.

Plate 955.

EUCOMIS VANDERMERWEI.

Transvaal.

Liliaceae.

Eucomis Vandermerwei Verdoorn, sp. nov. affinis E. humili sed, inter

alia, inflorescentia graciliore, foliis paucioribus longioribus, filamentis pur-

pureis distinguitur.

Bulbus 5 cm. diamater, tunico bruneo laeve membranaceo obtectus.

Folia 3-4, viridia, supra macnlis purpureis profunde apicem versus sparse

picta, infra purpureis suffusa et apicem versus maculata, circiter 40 cm.

longa, 4-5 cm. lata, marginibus undulatis. Pedunculus purpureo-maculatus,

usque 20 cm. longus, 9 mm. diameter, cylindricus. Racemus 8-9 cm. longus,

3 cm. diameter, subdensus. Coma circiter 11-bracteata, bracteis viridibus

purpureo-maculatis circiter 3 cm. longis 1-1-5 cm. latis. Bracteae circiter

1 cm. longae, ovatae, saccatae, saepe longe acuminatae, decurrentes.

Pedicellus 2-4 mm. longus. Perianthium 1 cm. longum, viride, purpureo-

suffusum; segmenta 8 mm. longa, 3-5-4 mm. lata, plus minusve apice

cucullata et mucronata. Stamina 6 ; filamenta albo- viridia, lanceolata, 4

mm. longa, basi dilatata et connata, perianthio dorsifixa. Ovarium tri-

gonum ; stylus 5 mm. longus. Capsula rubro-purpurea, triquetra.

Transvaal : Diepkloof, Tantesberg, near Middelburg, van der Merwe

in National Herbarium, Pretoria, No. 27,202 (type).

The genus Eucomis, especially as represented in the

Transvaal, requires investigation in the field. There appear

to be several undescribed species, and in many cases the

definitions of the existing species are not at all clear. In

these circumstances it may seem unwise to describe the

species figured here, but for reasons which follow it is con-

sidered that the undertaking is justified. Among the short-

pedicelled species there are only three described with purple-

maroon markings, E. Pillansii Guthrie, E. nana Ait. and

E. Inumilis Baker, the rest of the species having the leaves,

coma and peduncle plain green and the flowers usually

greenish-white. Of the three species mentioned, E. Pillansii

occurs in Namaqualand, and is easily distinguished by its

broadly spathulate leaves, which are appressed to the ground.

According to Baker in the Flora Capensis the name E. nana

applies to specimens from Natal as well as to the Cape

Peninsula plant named E. nana by Alton. All these plants

are characterised by having a very short clavate peduncle

and a short raceme, which make them easily distinguishable

from the species described here. The third related species in

this group E. Inumilis is figured on the previous plate. E.

Vandermerwei differs from it principally in having the fila-

ments greenish-white to green instead of distinctly purplish,

in the fewer and longer leaves and in the more slender and

less dense inflorescence. It was noted, too, that in our plant

the rhachis from the base of the bracts is conspicuously and

obtusely ridged, the ridge disappearing just before reaching

the flower below, while in E. humilis the bract is decurrent

in a short and sharp ridge. The capsules of these two species

also differ. Those of E. Vandermerwei are deeply 3-angled, with

the angles somewhat flattened, while in E. humilis the angles

are more rounded and shallow by comparison, with 3 marked

indentations in the upper part alternating with the angles.

Eucomis Vandermerwei is named after Dr. F. Z. van der

Merwe, who has sent so many interesting plants to this

Division, and to whom this volume is dedicated. He col-

lected the bulbs from which our plant was raised at Diep-

kloof in the Tantesberg, near Middelburg, Transvaal. The

flowering period is in later summer, January to February,

and the inflorescence remains attractive for several weeks. It

has, like most of the other species, a very unpleasant odour.

Description : — Bulb about 5 cm. in diameter with a smooth membranous

brown tunic. Leaves 3-4, green and spotted with maroon on the upper

surface, profusely so in the lower half and more sparsely towards the apex,

suffused with purplish-maroon on the under surface near the base and

spotted along the midrib and in the upper half, about 40 cm. long, some-

times longer, 4r-5 cm. broad, oblong-lorate, gradually narrowing to the base,

margins undulate with both small and large undulations. Inflorescence,

with coma, 15-24 cm. long. Peduncle suffused with pink and spotted with

maroon; the scape about 10 cm. long, 9 mm. in diameter. P\,aceme 8-9 cm.

long, 3 cm. in diameter, sub-dense. Coma of about 11 bracts, green spotted

with maroon, 3 cm. long, 1-1*5 cm. broad. Bracts of the raceme about 1

cm. long, ovate, mostly long acuminate, saccate near the base and appearing

to be decurrent in an obtuse ridge on the rhachis with the ridge disappearing

just above the flower directly below. Pedicels 2-A, mm. long. Perianth

greenish, suffused in part with purple, about 1 cm. long; segments about

8 mm. long, 3-5 mm. broad; the apices mucronate and slightly thickened

and cucullate. Stamens with greenish-white to green filaments which are

united at the base and fused with the perianth and the free portion, about

4 mm. long, lanceolate. Ovary purplish, with 3 lateral indentations which

do not reach to the top of the ovary; style about 5 mm. long. Capsule

purplish-maroon, 3-angled; the angles somewhat flattened and winglike. —

I. C. Verdoorn.

Plate 955. — Fig. 1, whole plant reduced; 2, flower showing attachment

and bract, enlarged; 3, whole flower, enlarged; 4, longitudinal section of

flower with gynoecium removed, enlarged; 5, capsule added to plate a

month later &om a plant grown from the same consignment of bulbs,

slightly enlarged.

F.P.S.A., October 1944.

93 6

K.A.Lansdell del.

z

A.W. Darnell lith.

Plate 956.

DIPCADI TORTILE.

Cape Province.

Liliaceae.

Dipcadi tortile, R. A. Dyer, sp. nov., affiinis D. voluto Baker, peri-

anthii lobis plus minusve lanceolatis quam tubo longioribus pedunculo

piloso differt.

Bulbus circiter 3-5-4 cm. altus, 4 cm. latus. Folia 2-4, viridia, glauco-

viridia, 10-15 cm. longa, 1-1-25 cm. lata, sensim attenuata, spiraliter contorta,

undulata, supra glabra, infra basin versus sparse vel dense pubescentia,

margine minute ciliata. Pedunculus usque 30 cm. altus, 8-10-florus, pilosus ;

bracteae inferne 5-6 mm. longae, anguste lanceolatae; pedicelli, 3-7 mm.

longi. Perianthium 1 -9-2-4 cm. longum, tubo 9-11 mm. longo subcylindrico,

lobis exterioribus 11-13 mm. longis 2-2-5 mm. latis lineari-lanceolatis,

interioribus 9-11 mm. longis 3-3-5 mm. latis lanceolatis. Ovarium 4-5

mm. longum, triangulare ; stylus 2-5-5 mm. longus.

Cape Province : Van Rhynsdorp Div. ; March 1923, Rood in National

Herbarium, Pretoria, No. 27,198 (type) ; Knechts Vlaagte, 11 miles north

of Zout River Bridge, June 1935, Salter 5473, in Bolus Herbarium.

Since 1923, when first collected by Mrs. Rood near Van

Rhynsdorp, the plant represented in this plate has remained

unclassified. No decision was taken at that time as to

whether it belonged to a described species or not. In con-

sultation with the Bolus Herbarium it is now agreed that it

is undescribed, and the name selected has reference to the

characteristic twisted leaves.

Dipcadi tortile shows a strong superficial resemblance to

D. volutum, described by Baker in 1897 from a plant collected

in Little Namaqualand by Scully, No. 214. In Scully’s

specimen the perianth tube is longer than the lobes, whereas

in the Rood specimen the tube is shorter than the lobes, and

the lobes are oblong-lanceolate, as compared with lanceolate

acuminate in D. tortile ; further, the peduncle of D. tortile is

densely pubescent, whereas that of D. volutum is glabrous.

Although the above characters satisfactorily distinguish these

two species, there are related but imperfect specimens which

cannot be referred to either. Many bulbous plants, par-

ticularly in the drier parts of Southern Africa, are still very

inadequately recorded; the reason partly being that they

usually have a short flowering period and are difficult to

preserve.

Description : — Bulb up to about 3-4 cm. high, 4 cm.

broad, 3-5 cm. below ground with a membranous tunic.

Leaves 2—4, glaucous green, 10-15 cm. long, 1-1-25 cm. broad,

gradually tapered to the apex, spirally coiled and markedly

undulate along the margin, glabrous above, thinly or densely

pubescent with long hairs on the under surface and also

minutely ciliate towards the base, glabrous above. Peduncle

up to 30 cm. tall, with the inflorescence occupying half this

length, 8-10-flowered, pilose; lower bracts 5-6 mm. long,

narrowly lanceolate ; pedicels 3-7 mm. long. Perianth

brownish-yellow, 1-9-2-4 cm. long, tube 9-11 mm. long, sub-

cylindric; outer perianth- lobes 11-13 mm. long, 2-2-5 mm.

broad, linear-lanceolate; inner lobes 9-11 mm. long, 3-3-5

mm. broad, lanceolate. Anthers 5 mm. long, linear, divided

for 1 mm. at the base. Gynoecium 6-10 mm. long; ovarj^

4-5 mm. long, triangular; style 2-5-5 mm. long. — R. A.

Dyer.

Plate 956. — Fig. 1, plant natural size; 2, longitudinal section of flower,

enlarged.

F.P.S.A., October 1944.

L. G. Lindsay del.

■A.W. Darnell lith.

Plate 957.

DRIMIOPSIS MACULATA.

Natal.

LlLIACEAE.

Drimiopsis maculata Lindl. in Paxt. Flow. Gard. ii, 73, fig. 172 (1851-2)

Baker in FI. Cap. 6, 473 (1897) ; D. minor Bak. in Saund. Ref. Bot. 3 (1870) ;

Baker in FI. Cap. 6, 473 (1897).

This is the first time that a member of the genus Dri-

miopsis is presented in the Flowering Plants of South Africa.

The affinities of the genus are rather obscure : while in some

respects it appears to be related to a group of plants at

present designated as Scilla Schlechteri Baker (see Plate 823),

yet the unattractive flowers, with segments which never

expand very much, are quite distinct. The snowy-white buds

attract attention, but the mature flowers are dull green and

unattractive.

The plant here figured was collected in a sheltered place

on a hillside inland from Doonside, on the Natal Coast, and

flowered in Pietermaritzburg in October 1943. This species

is often found growing in gardens. While the plant figured

is identified as D. maculata Lindl. it agrees in size with D.

minor Baker, but the range of intermediate variations found

is so wide that the present writer does not consider the latter

to be specifically distinct from D. maculata.

Description : — Bulb formed of fleshy scales, about 3 cm.

in diameter. Leaves 3 or 4, distinctly petioled; the petioles

about 10 cm. long and deeply canaliculate ; the blades cordate,

about 5 cm. in length and 3 cm. across, with undulating

margins when mature, and marked with dark green spots.

Scape usually single, up to 20 cm. in length. Raceme small,

compact, pyramidal, about 20 flowers. Pedicel very short;

bract obsolete, represented by a small tubercle. Perianth-

segments whitish in the bud, green in the open flower; the

three inner segments markedly cucullate and permanently

connivent; the three outer with incurved tips, spreading

slightly when flower opens. Filaments short, flattened ;

anthers ovoid. Ovary sessile, ovoid, 6-grooved, 3 chambers

with 2 collateral ovules in each chamber basally attached;

style cylindric, stigma not capitate. (F. Z. v. d. Merwe,

2672 and in National Herbarium, Pretoria, No. 27,187). —

F. van der Merwe.

Plate 957. — Fig. 1, plant in flower; 2, sketch of leaf; 3, bud, enlarged;

4, flower, enlarged, also showing bract; 5, inner segment, with anther;

6, outer segment ; 7, open flower from above ; 8, flower -with segments

removed ; 9, cross-section of ovary, all enlarged.

F.P.S.A., October 1944.

958

A-W. Darnell Jith.

Plate 958.

SCILLA CARNOSULA.

Natal.

Liliaceae.

Scilla (Ledebouria) carnosula F. van der Merwe, sp. nov. a speciebus

aliis habitu carnosula et bulbo maculis purpureis plerumque picta paullum

differt.

Bulbus rotundus ca. 5 cm. diametro infra leviter caulescens squamis

albidis superne maculis purpureis pictis indutus. Folia ad 6, basin versus

inter se amplexa, late lanceiformia, carnosula, ca. 10 cm. longa et 5 mm.

lata, leviter canaliculata, maculis nigrantibus super picta, infra immaculata.

Scapi ad 2, crassi, ad 10 cm. longi ; racemi densi, ca. 4 cm. longi et 2-5 cm.

diametro ; pedicelli plusquam 5 mm. longi, bracteis semilunaribus minimis

carnosulis; segmenta lineari- acuminata basin versus conniventia dein re-

curvata, ca. 5 mm. longa, obscure purpurea ad margines pallidiora. Fila-

menta purpurea, segmentis aequantia. Ovarium breviter stipitatum,

discoideo-ampliatum, 6-sulcatum, ovulis 6, stylo purpureo.

Natal : Oct. v. d. Merwe 2592 in National Herbarium , Pretoria , No.

27,200.

This species was found on various moist stony slopes near

Greytown. The plant here figured flowered in Pietermaritz-

burg in October 1943. The bulb shows the commencement

of a division into a number of smaller plants.

S. carnosula is characterised by the rather fleshy appear-

ance of the bulb-scales, leaves, and scapes; and by purple

spots on the bulb-scales. The general colour of the raceme

is a greyish-purple.

Description : — Bulb round, about 5 cm. in diameter,

with a disc-like stalk at its base, the scales being marked

along their upper edges with purplish spots. Leaves about 6,

the bases of the outer ones enfolding the inner ones, about

10 cm. long and 5 cm. wide when the plant is in flower,

broadly lanceolate, with blunt apices, shallowly concave above,

deep green with regular small blackish blotches on the upper

surface, none on the under surface. Scape about 10 cm. long,

flesh. Raceme dense, about 4 cm. long and 2-5 cm. in diameter.

Pedicels 5 mm. or more long, provided with obsolete fleshy

bract-remains. Perianth-segments connivent below, recurved

towards the apex, about 5 mm. long, greyish-purple with

lighter margins. Filaments as long as the segments, purple.

Ovary stipitate, 6-sulcate, discoidally widened at the base,

ovules 6, basally attached. Style purple.

Plate 958. — Fig. 1, plant in flower, natural size; 2, flower, enlarged;

3, part of axis, showing bracts ; 4, perianth -segment with anther ; 5, ovary-

side view ; 6, transverse section of ovary, all enlarged.

F.P.S.A., October 1944.

959

A. W. Darnell Hth.

L.G. Linds ay del

Plate 959.

SCILLA STENOPHYLLA.

Natal.

Liliaceae.

Scilla (Ledebouria) stenophylla F. van der Merwe, sp. nov. ad

S. neglectam accedit, sed foliis perangustis differt.

Bulbus ad ca. 4 cm. diametro, foliis siccis fibrosis vestitus, disco caules-

cente supposito et colie longo. Folia ca. 6, linearia, ad 3 mm. lata et

5 cm. longa, postea ad 20 cm. longa, canaliculata, semifibrosa, longi-

tudinaliter et transverse striata. Inflorescentiae ad 5 ; scapus brevis ad

3 cm. longus, brunneus ; racemus vix densus ad 3 cm. longus at 2 cm.

diametro ad 30-florus ; pedicellus ad 6 mm. longus, bracteis fibrosis parvis

duobus subtendentibus. Perianthium basin versus campanulatum, segmentis

recurvatis ligulato-acuminatis ca. 5 mm. longis ad 1-5 mm. latis, rubro-

brunneis ad marginibus et subtus pallidioribus. Filamenta segmentis

aequantia purpurea, antheris polline luteis. Ovarium bre viter stipitatum

basin versus discoideo-ampliatum, 6-sulcatum, ovulis 6 ; stylus purpureus.

Natal : Paulpietersburg, Sept., v. d. Merwe 2655 in National Herbarium,

Pretoria, No. 27,201.

This species of Scilla resembles S. graminifolia Bak. super-

ficially, but is actually very closely related to S. neglecta

van der Merwe (Plate 865), differing from it mainly in the

very narrow leaves and in being rather smaller. The plant

here figured was found in flower near Paulpietersburg (Sep-

tember 1943). Similar but smaller plants have also been

collected near Camperdown (F. v. d. M. 2419 in Nat. Herb.),

and a tentative attempt was made to identify these with

S. exigua Bak. Owing to the absence of type material of

the latter, however ( Sanderson 670 not having been located

in Dublin or elsewhere), it has appeared advisable to give

S. stenophylla specific rank, rather than risk wrongly iden-

tifying it with S. exigua.

Description : — Bulb up to 4 cm. in diameter, with a

disc-shaped stem below, and narrowing upwards into an

elongated neck, covered with semi-fibrous leaf remains.

Leaves about 6, just emerging when flowers start to open,

about 3 mm. wide and 5 cm. long, afterwards growing to a

length of 20 cm., light green with the characteristic transverse

and longitudinal dark green markings, especially on the

posterior surface, also shown by S. neglecta. Owing to their

fibrous nature, dry leaves from the previous year usually

persist. Inflorescences up to 5. Scape about 3 cm. long,

brownish. Raceme about 3 cm. long and 2 cm. in diameter,

not very dense, about 30 flowers of a bright crimson-maroon

colour. Pedicel about 6 cm. long, subtended by two small

fibrous bracts. Perianth campanulate, the segments ligulate-

acuminate, their ends recurved, of a bright crimson-maroon

colour, paler at the edges and on the under surface. Fila-

ments purple-crimson, about as long as the segments. Ovary

shortly stipitate, discoidally widened at the base, 6-sulcate,

style pointed.

Plate 959.— Fig. 1, plant, natural size; 2, flower; 3, segment with

anther ; 4, ovary from side ; 5, ovary from above, all enlarged ; 6, mature

leaf, later in season.

F.P.S.A., October 1944.

960

E.K.Burges del.

A. W. Darnell lith.

Plate 960.

PLECTRANTHUS TOMENTOSUS.

Natal, Transvaal.

Labiatae.

Plectranthus tomentosus Benth. in E. Mey. Comm. 229 (1835-7) Wood,

Natal PI. 4, t. 316 (1906) ; Cooke in FI. Cap. 5, 1, 286 (1910).

The haunts of this species are moist shady banks and cool

glades in the forests of Natal and the eastern Transvaal.

Our plant was collected in May 1943 in a forest 8-10 miles

from Krantzkop on the Mambula road to the Tugela Valley,

but was not figured until it flowered at the Division of Botany

and Plant Pathology in March of the following year. At the

time it was originally collected it flourished in company with

at least five other species of Plectranthus — making a beautiful

display — and also associated with it were various species of

fern, species of Streptocarpus, Stenoglottis fimbriata Lindl.

(Plate 585) and a rich variety of other shade-loving herbs.

Even in a restricted area plants taken to be Plectranthus

tomentosus Benth. showed quite a range of variation. This

was particularly the case with the size and colour of the

flowers, which varied from pale mauve to lilac and from 1 to

1-5 cm. in length. The plant with flowers 1 cm. long may

represent a constant variety, but there was little time to

investigate this possibility in the field. The field note refer-

ring to Dyer 4351 reads : “ This plant was very similar to

4352 (figured) in habit but growing side by side the smaller

size of flower and slightly denser pubescence were obvious

differences.” A further examination of the herbarium speci-

mens shows no structural differences.

The figure opposite shows the plant as it appeared on the

first day it was brought from the garden into the herbarium.

In the still atmosphere indoors the number of flowers open

at the same time was at least trebled within the next three

days, and there is no doubt that this is a graceful subject for

greenhouse cultivation. If grown in the open, to be seen at

its best, it would require conditions similar to its natural

forest environment.

In the Flora Capensis Cooke distinguishes P. tomentosus

Benth. from P. Woodii mainly on the more compact inflores-

cence and darker seeds of the former. P. Woodii is said to

grow out in the open on the hills inland from Durban. The

plate of P. tomentosus in Wood’s Natal Plants gives a good

impression, but lacks detail.

Description : — Sparsely branched plant 3-5 ft. high, herbaceous when

young, becoming woody with age. Stems either almost entirely green or

green below, becoming brownish-mauve towards the inflorescence, 4- angled,

stout, about 7 mm. thick, tomentose or villous. Leaves light green, up to

about 10 cm. long and 8 cm. broad, becoming smaller towards the inflores-

cence, broadly ovate, coarsely crenate, tomentose-villous on both surfaces

and with prominent venation on the lower surface; petiole up to 3 cm.

long on the lower leaves and almost obsolete on the leaves below the

inflorescence. Inflorescence rarely simple, usually paniculate, the central

raceme 15-40 cm. long; laterals 5-25 cm. long; verticels sessile, fairly

closely placed, dense, 6-14-flowered ; pedicels up to 8 mm. long. Calyx

dark mauve to green, 2 mm. long in flower, increasing to 3 mm. or more in

fruit, divided half-way, 10-veined, pubescent on the veins and with scattered

small yellow glands ; the uppermost lobe broadly ovate ; others lanceolate.

Corolla lilac or varying from light to dark mauve, with darker tips to the

upper lobes, which have a white central streak towards their base and to

the base of the smaller lateral lobes, compressed, 1-3-1-5 cm. long (occa-

sionally only 1 cm. long and proportionally smaller in all respects) ; tube

6-7 mm. long, deflexed 2-5-3 mm. above the base, enlarged above; upper

lip recurved erect, with long hairs and a few minute yellow glands on the

outer surface, 3-5 mm. long, 4-lobed with the two inner lobes 2 mm. long,

2-5 mm. broad, obtuse; the two lateral lobes less than 1 mm. long and

broad ; lower lip 7-7-5 mm. long, boat-shaped, obtuse with recurved hairs

and minute yellow glands on the under surface. Stamens with filaments

fused to the base of the corolla-tube ; those of the outer two being decurrent

about 1 cm., rarely exserted beyond the lower lip. Style elongating further

than the anthers, bifid. (Dyer 4352 in National Herbarium, Pretoria, No.

27,205.) — R. A. Dyek.

Plate 960. — Fig. 1, and la, leaves and inflorescence natural size; 2,

flower, x 8 ; 3, margin of leaf, under surface, x 3; 4, flower, side view,

X 12 ; 5, tube of corolla opened out showing two decurrent filaments,

X 12 ; 6, gynoecium, x 15 ; 7, habit.

F.P.S.A., October 1944.

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