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EDWIN PERCY PHILLIPS

THE

FLOWERING PLANTS OF AFRICA

A MAGAZINE CONTAINING COLOURED FIGURES WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF THE

FLOWERING PLANTS INDIGENOUS IN AFRICA.

EDITED BY

R. ALLEN DYER, M.Sc., D.Sc., F.R.S.(S. A.), F.C.S.S.,

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. XXV

SOUTH AFRICA

J. L. VAN SCHAIK LTD.

P.O. BOX 724, PRETORIA

ENGLAND

L. REEVE & CO., LTD.

SANKEY HOUSE, BROOK, ASHFORD, KENT

1945-1946.

All rights reserved.

NOTE.

Owing to the continued difficulties due to the

War, further delays in publication have been

unavoidable. Thus Volume 25 covers the two years

1945-1946. The Editor apologises to Subscribers

for this interruption in the normal procedure.

PRINTED IN GKKAT BRITAIN

TO

EDWIN PERCY PHILLIPS,

M.A., D.SO., E.R.S. (S.A.)

FORMER EDITOR AND CHIEF OF THE

DIVISION OF BOTANY AND PLANT PATHO-

LOGY AND DIRECTOR OF THE BOTANICAL

SURVEY OF SOUTH AFRICA, AUTHOR OF

THE GENERA OF SOUTH AFRICAN FLOWER-

ING PLANTS AND NUMEROUS OTHER

BOTANICAL WORKS, INCLUDING THE

MAJOR PART OF THE TEXT FOR THE FIRST

TWENTY VOLUMES OF FLOWERING PLANTS

OF SOUTH AFRICA, THIS VOLUME IS

DEDICATED IN RECOGNITION OF HIS

MANY NOTABLE CONTRIBUTIONS TO

SOUTH AFRICAN BOTANY.

Division or Botany and Plant Pathology, Pretoria.

October, 1946.

THE

FLOWERING PLANTS OF AFRICA

PREFACE.

It will be noticed that the title of this work has been

changed from The Flowering Plants of South Africa to

The Flowering Plants of Africa.

“ The Flowering Plants of South Africa ” was launched

in 1921 by Dr. I. B. Pole Evans, then Chief of the Division

of Botany and Plant Pathology. Its inception was made

possible by the generosity of a number of private people,

inspired by a love for the natural beauties of the country;

and for a number of years its pages were devoted exclusively

to the illustration and description of plants indigenous to the

Union.

The work was intended to bring to the notice of the public

botanical gems of nature, and it was hoped also that the pub-

lication would be the means of stimulating in the rising genera-

tion further interest in the study and cultivation of our wild

flowers. It is believed that the journal has so far fulfilled

the desire and objects of its promoters, and it is trusted that

it will continue to do so.

There was a period during the early days of the second

world war when it seemed inevitable that publication would

have to be suspended, because of the lack of funds and many

other difficulties. By good fortune this was avoided. Funds

were augmented by generous donations and by the enrolling

of several new subscribers. The transmission of manuscripts

and drawings throughout the dark days of war, to and from

the publishers overseas, without a single loss, was a great

achievement. To the sailors who faced the perils of sea

warfare, and to those on land who endured the menace of

flying bombs and other trials, we owe a deep debt of gratitude.

For some years past, and especially during the war, com-

munications with African States farther north have been

greatly increased, and closer co-operation between these

regions and the Union has resulted, in which botany has shared.

It is very desirable that this more Pan-African outlook

should be fostered in every way possible, and it is desired

that the pages of this journal should help to this end. For

this purpose alone it seems necessary to emend the title of

the work from “ The Flowering Plants of South Africa ”

to the more comprehensive “ The Flowering Plants of Africa.”

Moreover, the original title has already become somewhat

inadequate, for a substantial proportion of the plates published

in Volume 20, for example, are illustrations of plants collected

in East Africa by the Pole Evans Expedition of 1937. Since

then men in our armed forces, passing to and from war zones

of the Mediterranean and Middle East, have contributed other

plants from tropical Africa for inclusion in the journal.

Africa is a vast continent. It supports a rich and inter-

esting flora, and is peopled by many races of mankind. The

rich flora is not restricted by political boundaries, and these

artificial limits should not be allowed to impede the study

of its composition and potentialities. Both for social and

scientific reasons the flora should be studied as a whole. To

this end the pages of “ The Flowering Plants of Africa ”

are opened to botanists and artists for appropriate contri-

butions on the flora of all parts of the African Continent.

R. Allen Dyer.

Pretoria.

January, 1945.

(Publ. 1946.)

9(S)

R. Brown del.

Huth lith.

«”o

Plate 961.

HALLERIA LUCIDA.

Tanganyika to Cape Peninsula.

SOROPHTXLARIAOEAE .

Halleria lucida Linn. Sp. PI. ed. 1, 625 (1753), excl. var. (3. ; Harv. in

FI. Cap. 4, part 2, p. 207 (1904).

This species is one of the comparatively few tropical

elements of our flora that extend southwards as far as the

Cape Peninsula. It is found throughout southern Africa

growing in ravines, along streams, in forests, and sometimes

in bush groups on the hill slopes or in the plains. Occurring

as it does in the parts of the Cape first explored by Europeans,

and being easily propagated by cuttings, one finds it mentioned

in cultivation in the very early days. It was figured by Bur-

man in 1739 ; William Burchell, in his diary for February 1811,

records it as growing in the Government gardens in Cape

Town; while in 1815 the species was figured in Curtis’s

Botanical Magazine from a specimen growing in a greenhouse

in England.

The specimen figured here was taken from a plant flowering

in the gardens of the National Herbarium, Pretoria, in Sep-

tember 1944. Originally the plant came from a kloof in the

Rustenburg district and was collected there by Dr. I. B.

Pole Evans over thirty years ago. Today it is a shrub

with one erect stem up to about 15 ft. tall and several spreading

stems, some of which are “ kneed ”, and where these knees

touch the ground they root. The branches, which are

opposite and spreading, grow densely in the upper half of the

stem. In the axils of the leaves, and densely clustered on

the old wood under the leaves, are numerous flowers. They

are funnel-shaped and richly coloured, ranging from Brazil

Red to Garnet Brown, according to Ridgway’s Colour Stan-

dards. The nectar in the base of the flower-tube is eagerly

sought after by sunbirds. While the majority of the flowers

on this shrub are funnel-shaped with an oblique, somewhat

2-lipped mouth, several were found to be trumpet-shaped

with the lobes equally spreading and 4 or 5 in number. In

these examples the stamens were also equally disposed and not

unilateral. The fruit is globose and similar to a small “ Cape

Gooseberry ” ( Physalis peruviana), only it is topped by a long,

persistent style and the green calyx persists at the base.

When it reaches a diameter of about 1 cm. it ripens, the outer

coat turning black. At this stage it is relished by fruit-

eating birds, which is most likely one of the main reasons

for its very wide distribution. The flesh is greenish and jelly-

like, in which small seeds are embedded, and the black

skin is excessively thin, and breaks up easily. The flavour is

sickly-sweet and slightly astringent, most like that of the

“ Hottentot’s Fig ” ( Carpobrotus sp.).

Description : — Shrub or small tree (occasionally with a stem up to 1 ft.

in diameter when growing in forests). Branches opposite, spreading, mostly

borne on upper half of the stem. Leaves opposite, with petiole up to 1 cm.

long, ovate, long acuminate at the apex, cuncate or truncate at the base,

about 8-9 cm. long and 3-4 cm. broad, very minutely punctate, more densely

so on the lower surface, veins and midrib impressed on the upper surface,

prominent beneath, margin serrulate. Flowers clustered in the axils of the

leaves and also borne on very much-abbreviated shoots on the old wood,

even on the main trunk. Peduncles slender, about 1-5 cm. long, bi-bracteate

below the middle. Calyx bright green, persistent, cyathiform becoming

scuteliform, usually 3-lobed, sometimes the upper lobe lobulate; lobes at

first ascending, then spreading and in fruit reflexed. Corolla Brazil Red to

Garnet Brown (R.C.S.), yellow ventrally and at the base, about 3 cm. long,

normally funnel-shaped, slightly gibbose ventrally at the base; upper lip

3-lobed, in bud overlapping the lower or ventral lip, lobes rounded, 2-3 mm.

long and 4-5 mm. broad, the central sometimes bi-lobed, ciliate, apices

slightly spreading ; lower lip 2-5 mm. long and about 8 mm. broad, emargin-

ate, with 2 short obtuse lobes at the base, usually erect or slightly spreading

at the apex, in some abnormal cases lower lip 2-lobed; several abnormal

flowers were found with corolla funnel-shaped and equally 4-5 lobed, with

the stamens equally disposed ; in bud some had 2 lobes wholly within and

2 wholly without, while in others one lobe was wholly within, one wholly

without, and 2 half in and half out. Stamens 4, didynamous, inserted on the

tube, eventually exserted, unilateral against the posterior lip (in some

abnormal flowers the stamens were equally disposed and in some there were

5 stamens) ; anthers at first reddish-purple, with cells parallel, eventually

divaricate and confluent. Ovary green with a white to red style, green at

the exserted decurved apex, about 4 cm. long. Fruit a juicy berry, green

turning black when ripe, globose, about 1 cm. in diameter, terminating

in a long, slender, persistent style and with the green, enlarged calyx with

refexed lobes persisting at the base (National Herbarium, Pretoria, No.

27,251.) — I. C. Verdoorn.

Plate 961. — Fig. 1, flowering branch; 2, green and ripe fruit; 3, bud

showing aestivation and pedicel; 4, whole flower; 5, longitudinal section

of flower; 6, pedicel and calyx with corolla and ovary removed ; 7, abnormal

flower with lower lip 2-lobed, and 5 stamens; 8, abnormal flower, with 4

equally spreading lobes; 9, abnormal flower with equally spreading lobes,

and stamens not unilateral (all natural size).

F.P.A., for Jan. 1945 (1946).

Plate 962.

BABIANA HYPOGEA.

S. Rhodesia, Bechuanaland, Union of South Africa.

Iridaceae.

Babiana hypogea Burchell, Travels 2,589 (1824); Baker in FI. Cap.

6, 107 (1896); B. Bainesii Baker in Journ. Bot. 1876, 335; Baker in FI.

Cap. 6, 10 (1896).

On seeing Babiana hypogea scattered about the veld one

gets an impression of tufts of grass with basal bluish-mauve,

gladiolus-like flowers. There is probably the temptation

to remove the plants to the home garden. They are, however,

not readily transplanted, the corms, with a long fibrous

neck, being deeply buried and certainly sensitive to distur-

bance at the flowering period. The collector of the plants

figured, Miss P. Inglis, dug them from her garden, which was

at the time virgin veld, only recently having been built upon

at Littleton, a few miles to the south of Pretoria.

The flowers are sweetly scented and appear, according to

climatic conditions, between January and July. In the neigh-

bourhood of Pretoria, where the plants are common, the short

flowering period occurs between February and March.

Burchell established the species B. hypogea in 1824 based

on material collected a few years earlier on his journey of

exploration in Bechuanaland. He described it in Chapter

18 of the second volume of his Travels in Southern Africa,

where he refers to the food of the native tribe then known

as the Bachapins. “ Of the wild roots which are more

commonly eaten, a species of Gladiolus (G. edulis ) called

lituin or lituing and another of Babiana (B. hypogea) called

lichus, which is the general name for bulbs of these genera,

are met with very frequently in the Great Plains of Litakun.”

Baboons are also fond of the corms.

The genus Babiana, with the exception of B. hypogea,

is restricted to South Africa. B. hypogea has the widest

distribution of any species, extending from the northern

parts of the Cape Province into Tropical Africa. An exam-

ination by Mss G. J. Levis of an abundance of herbarium

material showed that, in the large area over which the species

occurs, it exhibits considerable variation in habit and size

of flowers. This is not to be wondered at. Far from wishing

to regard the variations as distinct species, Miss Levis came

to the conclusion that the form previously separated as B.

Bainesii Baker was not specifically distinct, and this name,

therefore, lapses into synonymy.

Description : — Plants usually several together in tufts, increasing

by budding, the corms deeply buried, 15-20 cm. or more deep. Corm

sub-globose, about 2-2-5 cm. in diameter, covered with a thick mat of

fibrous leaf-bases, with a neck up to 20 cm. long. Leaves usually 4-7 from

each corm, 10-40 cm. long, up to 1 cm. broad (those from juvenile corms

being considerably smaller), tapering to the apex and base, prominently

ribbed but hardly plicate, pilose on the ribs; the innermost with membran-

ous bases similar to the bracts. Inflorescence congested ; the peduncle

not reaching to ground level, young peduncles producing single flowers ;

mature ones branched, 8-10 flowered ; rhachis short, flowers secund. Bracts

subtending the flower-clusters oblong, 6-10 cm. long, lanceolate, membran-

ous, brown-tipped, sparsely pilose; bracteoles similar but smaller than

bracts, usually acutely bilobed at the apex but sometimes entire, 1 -veined,

acute. Perianth with white tube shading into bluish-mauve on the seg-

ments, the lower 3 segments with or without eye-like markings towards the

base; tube narrow cylindric, slightly expanded to the throat, up to 6 cm.

long, 2 mm. broad ; lobes up to 6 cm. long, 1-25-1-5 cm. broad, more or less

oblanceolate, acute. Stamens arcuate; filaments united to the corolla

tube about 5 mm. within the tube, 1 cm. exserted; filaments linear, 1 cm.

long. Style exserted slightly beyond the filaments; the stigmas with in-

rolled margins, which are minutely ciliate. Ovary 1-1-25 cm. long.

(National Herbarium, Pretoria, No. 27,229.) — R. A. Dyer.

Plate 962. — Fig. 1, plant, natural size; 2, and 2a, under-surface and

cross-section of leaf, x 3; 3, bracteole, natural size ; 4, longitudinal section

of part of corolla showing insertion of one filament and relative position of

style, slightly enlarged; 5, stigma, x 2; 6, young plant produced by bud-

ding, x 7, old corm, x

F.P.A., for Jan. 1945 (1946).

Plate 963.

DISPERIS THORNCROFTII.

Cape Province, Transvaal.

Orchid aceae.

Disperis Thorncroftii Schlechter in Engl. Bot. Jahrb. 20, Beibl.

50, p. 19 (1895).

This is the seventh species of Disperis to appear in these

pages and one of the six Transvaal species mentioned under

Plate 316 as “ awaiting the attention of collectors and artists.”

In its general habit of growth and delicate beauty D.

Thorncroftii is comparable with D. disaeformis (Plate 499),

D. Fanniniae (Plate 308), D. anthoceros (Plate 327), and some

others which have not yet been illustrated.

The specimens figured were among those collected by the

Rev. R. C. Doe and Miss I. Schnell at Dontza and MacNaugh-

ton Krantz, near King Williams’ Town, in November and Dec-

ember 1941 and 1942. The only previous collections that have

been recorded were the two originally described, which date

back, one to 1893 and the other probably a little earlier —

namely, that from Katberg, made by E. E. Galpin (1688b.),

and that from Barberton made by J. Thorncroft, after whom

the species is named. We have not seen Mr. Thorncroft’s

collection, and have determined our plant by comparison

with Galpin 1688b, with which it agrees admirably. It should

be noted, however, that the type-description does not entirely

fit the Katberg plant, and the discrepancies may be due to

the author’s having dealt with dried material only.

Description : — Plant 15-27 cm. high. Tubers usually

obovoid when mature, 1-5-2 cm. long. Stem up to 3 mm.

diameter, fragile; the basal sheath 0-5-1 -7 cm. long. Leaves

2, spreading or ascending, the blade broadly ovate or ovate,

cordate at base, acute, often marbled with white on the upper

surface, dark purple on the lower, 4-1 cm. long, up to 3-5

cm., usually 2-5-1 cm., broad. Raceme laxly 1-3-flowered ;

flowers ascending or nearly erect. Bracts spreading, leafy,

2-8-0-5 cm. long. Pedicels very short. Side sepals more or

less spreading or sometimes directed backwards, obliquely

broadly ovate, 8 mm. long, conspicuously spurred near the

base ; the spurs curved outwards, obtuse ; odd sepal galeate,

long-acuminate, erect, then spreading or bent forwards.

Petals white, green-dotted in the upper hah, shortly clawed,

expanded and semicircular on the anterior side, long-acumin-

ate, 8 mm. long. Lip erect and then projecting backwards

over the column ; the lobes of the appendage ovate or oblong-

ovate; the anterior lobe deflexed and appressed to the claw

of the lip ; the posterior reflexed over the back of the column.

Rostellum nearly orbicular, gland-bearing arms projecting

forwards, with the apical, dilated portion erect. ( Doe and

Schnell in Bolus Herbarium, No. 22,681.) — L. Bolus.

Plate 963. — Fig. 1, flower, slightly enlarged ; 2, side sepal ; 3, odd sepal ;

4, petal, X 4; 5, column, front view; 6, same, side view; 7, same, back

view; 8, column.

F.P.A., for Jan. 1945 (1946).

964

L. 6. Lindsay del. ^ Huth Jith.

Plate 964.

SCILLA CICATRICOSA.

Natal.

Liliaoeae .

Scilla (Ledebouria) cicatricosa C. A. Smith in Kew Bull. 1930, 246.

This species was established on Plate 202 in Wood’s Natal

Plants (1900) (published as S. lanceaefolia). Since both the

general locality and characteristics of Wood’s plant agree

with those of the specimen here described, the identification

appears reasonably certain.

While the resemblance to the true S. lanceaefolia Jacq.

from the Cape is but slight (Plate 913 in Flowering Plants),

this species has certain closer affinities with S. ovatifolia

Bak. (Plate 830), in the fact that, while the bulbs to a certain

extent show the fleshy scales of S. ovatifolia, the leaves are

definitely semi-erect, more elongated, and have undulate

margins. A herbarium specimen ( Krauss 464) was also

identified with S. cicatricosa by Smith.

The plant here figured was collected near Cato Ridge,

and flowered in Pietermaritzburg in September 1943. This

species also occurs in the neighbourhood of Umzumbi, along

the south coast of Natal.

Description : — Bulb about 5 cm. in diameter, showing a

varying amount of horizontal, fleshy, leaf-scale edges. Leaves

about 6 at time of flowering, lanceolate, about 10 cm. long

and 5 cm. wide near the base, semi-erect, margins undulating,

marked on both surfaces by dark green or brownish blotches.

Inflorescences 1-4, axis flexuose, drooping, up to about 8

cm. long below raceme. Raceme about 6 cm. long, up to

about 100 flowers. Pedicel about 10 mm. long, subtended

by divided remnants of small membranous bract. Perianth

segments first connivent to form a cup, then recurved, ligulate,

about 1 mm. wide and 5 mm. long, purplish-green with paler

margins. Filaments as long as segments, spreading, purple.

Ovary shortly stipitate, discoidally widened at its base, 6-

lobed, 3-chambered with 2 ovules in each; style purplish.

(F. v. d. Merwe 2533 in National Herbarium, Pretoria, No.

27,199.) — F. Z. van der Merwe.

Plate 964. — Fig. 1, plant in flower, natural size; 2 and 3, single flowers,

enlarged; 4, anther and perianth segments; 5, ovary from side; 6, ovary

from above; 7, transverse section of flower.

F.P.A., for Jan. 1945 (1946).

965

M.E. Maytham del.

Huth lith.

Plate 965.

EULOPHIA SCHNELLIAE.

Cape Province.

Orchid ace ae.

Eulophia Schnelliae L. Bolus, sp. nov. Pseudobulbi ovati vel globoso-

ovati, 2-4-5 cm. diam. Folia 8, synanthia, demum patentia, conduplicata,

subcoriacea, apicem versus angustata, acuta, 3-5-16 cm. longa, ad 1-9 cm.

lata, nervo medio cum primariis 2-4 inconspicuo. Scapus 24 cm. longus,

ad 5 mm. diam. ; vaginae 5, acuminatae, ad 4-6 cm. longae, superiores 4,

internodiis breviores. Racemus cum floribus pluribus nondum evolutis

6 cm. longus, circa 12-florus, floribus adscendentibus vel patentibus. Bradeae

late ovatae, acutae, 1-9-1 cm. longae, ad 1-5 cm. latae. Pedicelli fructiferi

ad 1 cm. longi. Sepala demum patentia, fere oblonga, obtusa, apiculata,

1 -6-2-2 cm. longa, 0-7-1 cm. lata. Petala inter latissima in genere, late

elliptica vel fere orbicularia, 2-2-3 cm. longa, 1-3-1-8 cm. lata. Labellum

superum, ad 2-7 cm. longum cum calcare ad 7 mm. longo subcomplanato

apiceque leviter dilatato ad 4 mm. diam., inferne inconspicue 4-carinatum,

lobo intermedio fere orbiculare ad 1-2 cm. longo conspicue cristato, papillis

4-seriatis, ultra medium lobi attingentibus, lobis lateralibus obtusis ad 5

mm. longis ad 4-5 mm. latis. Columna 0-8-1 cm. longa, ad 5 mm. lata,

basi in pedem haud producta. Anthera suborbicularis, vix rostrata, 2-3

mm. diam.

Cape Province : King William’s Town Div. ; near King William’s Town,

Nov. 1942, Irmgard Schnell in Bolus Herbarium, No. 22,860.

This species might be regarded as another link between

the closely allied genera Eulophia and Lissochilus and as fur-

ther evidence in favour of uniting them. For, although

the cresting of the lip is like that of Eulophia, the broad

petals are characteristic of Lissochilus.

It is named after its discoverer, Miss I. Schnell, who is,

and has been for years, an ardent collector of the South

African Orchids.

The only plant we have seen is the one figured and de-

scribed here; so that more material for examination would

be welcomed, especially as a means of extending our know-

ledge of what at present must be regarded as a little-known

species.

Description : — Pseudobulbs ovate or globosely ovate,

2-4-5 cm. diameter. Leaves 8, contemporary with the flowers,

finally spreading, conduplicate, somewhat leathery in texture,

narrowed towards the apex, acute, 3-5-16 cm. long, up to

1-9 cm. broad, the middle nerve and the 2 -A primary ones

inconspicuous. Scape 24 cm. long, up to 5 mm. diameter;

sheaths 5, acuminate, up to 4-6 cm. long, the 4 upper ones

shorter than the internodes. Raceme with several of the flowers

still in bud 6 cm. long, about 12-flowered ; the flowers ascend-

ing or spreading. Bracts broadly ovate, acute, 1-9-1 cm.

long, up to 1-5 cm. broad. Fruit-bearing pedicels up to

1 cm. long. Sepals finally spreading, almost oblong,

obtuse, apiculate, 1 -6-2-2 cm. long, 0-7-1 cm. broad. Petals

among the broadest in the genus, broadly elliptic or almost

circular, 2-2-3 cm. long, 1 -3—1*8 cm. broad. Lip superior,

up to 2-7 cm. long with the spur up to 7 mm. long, which is

somewhat flattened and at the apex dilated slightly and there

up to 4 mm. diameter, inconspicuously 4-keeled in the lower

half; the intermediate lobe almost circular, up to 1-2 cm.

long, conspicuously crested, the papillae being in 4 series,

extending to beyond the middle of the lobe, the lateral lobes

obtuse, up to 5 mm. long, up to 4-5 mm. broad. Column

0-8-1 cm. long, up to 5 mm. broad, not produced at the base

into a foot. Anther suborbicular, scarcely beaked, 2-3 mm.

diameter. — L. Bolus.

Plate 965. — Fig. 1, leaf, flattened; 2, flower, front view; 3, same,

side view ; 4, bract ; 5, sepal ; 6, petal ; 7, lip and column, side view ; 8,

8a, bp, from different flowers, flattened ; 9, same, side view, natural size ;

10, column, front view; 11, same, side view, x 2; 12, anther, x 3.

F.P.A., for Jan. 1945 (1946).

Pf?6

Plate 966.

EULOPHIA CARUNCULIFERA.

Cape Province, Natal .

Orchidaoeae.

Eulophia carunculifera Rechb. f. in Flora, 1881, 329.

The type of this species was collected in Natal by the Rev.

J. Buchanan (after whom the stately Lissochilus Buchananii,

figured on Plate 586 of this work, was named), and neither

the precise locality nor the date is recorded. But the author

of the species, Reichenbach the younger, has noted on the

ticket of the material he described, that it was “ received

in Nov. 1875 ”. Upwards of seventy years, therefore, had

passed by before the only other collection we know of was

made in January 1942 by the three orchid enthusiasts, the

Rev. R. C. Doe, Miss I. Schnell and Miss V. Schulze, who

discovered it growing “ in fair abundance ” on Frankfort

Hill, near King William’s Town. They have other interesting

finds to their credit, among them being the second collection

known to us of Eulophia Peglerae Rolfe, the type of which

is a solitary and imperfect specimen collected by Miss Alice

Pegler about forty years ago.

Perhaps Eulophia carunculifera is not so rare as it would

seem to be, and the absence of any attractive colouring in the

flowers, and their small size, probably account for its having

been overlooked for so long; in which case the publication

of this plate may lead to the disclosure of other localities

bridging the gap from Natal to King William’s Town. The

specific name alludes to the fleshy protruberances ( caruncula

— a little piece of flesh) forming the crest of the lip, which is

an ample one as crests are represented in the genus.

Description : — Plant 37-52 cm. high. Pseudobulbs usu-

ally 1-1*5 cm. diameter. Leaves 2-4, contemporaneous

with the flowers, erect, conduplicate, linear, the longer ones

tapering downwards for more than half their length, with the

midrib and 2 primary nerves prominent on the under-surface,

texture rather thin, 10-43 cm. long, up to 8 mm. broad.

Scape 23-29 cm. long, up to 3 mm. diameter; sheaths 5-7,

all except the 2 upper ones longer than the internodes, usually

8-6 cm. long. Raceme 9-12 cm. long, simple or with a branch

from the uppermost sheath, up to 18-flowered. Bracts ovate,

acuminate, 1 *5-0*5 cm. long. Pedicels usually about 5 mm.

long. Sepals more or less spreading in mature flowers, linear,

abruptly acute, up to 1 cm. long, 2-3 mm. broad. Petals

oblong or elliptic-oblong, 8-9 mm. long, up to 3*5 mm. broad.

Lip usually inferior, inconspicuously keeled in the lower

half, up to 1*1 cm. long, including the spur 2 mm. long;

intermediate lobe rounded at the apex, conspicuously crested

to below the middle, about twice as long as the obtuse lateral

lobes and nearly three times broader. Column 4-5 mm.

long. Anther nearly orbicular, 1*5-2 mm. diameter, scarcely

rostrate. {Doe, Schnell and Schulze in Bolus Herbarium,

No. 22,859.) — L. Bolus.

Plate 966. — Fig. 1, leaf, upper surface; 2, portion of same; 3, same,

under-surface ; 4, flower, front view ; 5, same, side view ; 6, column and lip,

side view, x 1*5 ; 7, bract; 8, side sepal; 9, odd sepal; 10, petal; 11, lip,

flattened, x 2; 12, column, front view; 13, same, side view; 14, anther,

X 5.

F.P.A., for Jan. 1945 (1946).

967

E.K.Bur^es del.

Huth litii.

Plate 967.

KALANCHOE CRUNDALLII.

Transvaal.

Crassulaceae.

Kalanchoe Crundallii Verdoorn sp. nov., paniculis contractis glabris

K. thyrsiflorae Harv. affinis sed inter alia floribus rubicundis difFert.

Planta subsucculenta, glabra, pruinosa. Caules simplices, ascendentes,

90 cm. alti, 1-4 cm. diam. Folia opposita et decussata, subsucculenta,

petiolata, internodiis 1-5^4 cm. longis ; lamina viridis, non-nunquam margine

rubicundo, late oblonga vel suborbiculata, plus minusve 7 cm. longa, 5-5

cm. lata, crenata vel subintegra, apice late obtusa, basi cuneata; petiolus

5-20 mm. longus, 5 mm. latus. Bracteae sessiles, 2-3 cm. longae. Inflores-

centra cymosa, paniculata, contracta, plus minusve oblonga. Pedunculi

breves vel ad 3 cm. longi vel longiores. Bracteolae virides, lineares, 2-9

cm. longae, subcarnosae. Pedicelli graciles, 1-L5 cm. longi. Calyx 4-

lobatus; lobi deltoidei, 5 mm. longi, 2 mm. lati. Corolla rubra; tubus

4-angulatus, 14 mm. longus, 5 mm. latus, fauce leviter contracto ; lobi intus

lutei, 3-5 mm. longi, 3 mm. lati, leviter recurvati, apicibus late rotundatis

minute apiculatis. Stamina 8, inclusa, biseriata, supra medium tubae

inserta. Squamae virides, oblongae, 2-5 mm. longae, 1-5 mm. latae. Car-

pella 4, 8 mm. longa. Stylus 2-5 mm. longus ; stigma terminate.

Transvaal : Zoutpansberg Dist. ; Mt. Lejuma, Crundall in National

Herbarium, Pretoria, 27,157.

The specimen figured here was grown in Mr. A. H. Crund-

all’s garden in Pretoria, where it flowered in March 1943.

Originally it came from Mt. Lejuma, at the western extremity

of the Zoutpansberg range, and was collected there by Mr.

Crundall in July 1938, when he was on one of his many

hiking trips, exploring the lesser known parts of the Trans-

vaal. Kalanchoe Crundalii is nearest K. thyrsiflora in the

contracted cymes of the inflorescence, which is more or less

oblong in outline and in the size and shape of the corolla.

It differs principally in the colour of its corolla, which is

coral-red with darker red patches, whereas in K. thyrsiflora

it is a pale Tiber-green with bright wax-yellow lobes. Just

as these yellow lobes are touched with red at their tips, so

the red lobes of K. Crundallii are tinged with yellow. K.

thyrsiflora has much larger leaves than our species and they

are sessile ; it is a biennial, while K. Crundallii appears to be

perennial.

Red is a frequent colour for the flowers of the related genus

Cotyledon, but is not so common in Knlanchoe, most of the

known species having yellow flowers. The commonest yellow-

flowered species in the Transvaal is K. paniculata , which has

a large, flat-topped panicle. The frequent red-flowered

species, K. rotundifolia, differs very much from our species

in being a delicate plant with slender stems and a slender

corolla-tube with narrow acute lobes.

Kalanchoe Crundallii is a decorative plant in a wild gar-

den. The waxy green leaves are often bordered with red,

and the panicle remains colourful for some time. The erect

buds are greenish-yellow with some red areas, and the pendu-

lous flowers are entirely red, except for some areas which are

not exposed to direct light and the slightly yellowish tips.

As the flowrer matures it becomes erect again, the withering

corolla closing over the ripening carpels and turning an attrac-

tive reddish-brown colour.

Description : — A somewhat fleshy, glabrous, pruinose plant. Stems

simple, ascending about 90 cm. tall and 1-4 cm. diameter near the base.

Leaves petioled, somewhat fleshy, opposite and decussate with internodes

1-5-4 cm. long; blade green to yellowish-green, often with a broken red

border on the crenate to subentire margin, broadly oblong to suborbicular,

about 7 cm. long and 5-5 cm. wide, broadly rounded at the apex, cuneate

at the base into a flattened petiole about 5-20 mm. long, about 5 mm. broad.

Bracts sessile, 2-3 cm. long. Inflorescence a short cymose panicle more or

less oblong in outline. Peduncles varying from very short up to 3 cm.

long (sometimes even longer in lateral cymes). Floral bracts green, somewhat

fleshy, generally 2-9 cm. long. Pedicels slender, 1-1-5 cm. long. Calyx

4-lobed; lobes fleshy, deltoid, about 5 mm. long and 2 mm. broad. Corolla

red or parts not exposed to direct sunlight greenish-yellow ; tube 4-angled,

14 mm. long and 5 mm. broad, very slightly contracted at the throat,

lobes 3-5 mm. long and 3 mm. broad, slightly recurving, yellowish on inner

face, apex broadly rounded, minutely apiculate. Stamens 8, included,

inserted on the corolla in two rows in the upper half of the tube. Squamae

light green, oblong, 2-5 mm. long and 1-5 mm. broad. Carpels 4, green,

8 mm. long. Styles 2-5 mm. long, stigma terminal. — I. C. Yerdoorn.

Plate 967. — Fig. 1, whole plant much reduced ; 2, corolla cut open show-

ing attachment of stamens, enlarged ; 3, the carpels and squamae,

enlarged.

F.P.A., for Jan. 1945 (1946).

96 8

E.K. Burges del.

Huth lith.

Plate 968.

IXIA POLYSTACHYA.

Cape Province.

Iridaceae.

Ixia polystachya Linn. Sp. Plant, ed. 2, 51 (1762-3) ; Baker in FI.

Cap. 6, 77 (1896) in part.

The earliest drawings of Ixia appear to be three species

published in 1757 in Miller’s Dictionary Ic. 104. These

Linnaeus in his Species Plantarum ed. 2 (1762-3) has named

I. polystachya, I. flexuosa and I. maculata. Since that date

numerous species, varieties and colour varieties have been

described and figured and, as arranged by Baker in the

Flora Capensis (1896) the genus Ixia is unsatisfactory, includ-

ing as it seems to me four other distinct genera. A revision

of the genus is obviously needed, but until ample material

has been collected and examined in the field it will be difficult

to complete such a work. The variations within many of the

species are so great, and some of the species, as they are at

present understood, so closely related, that from the somewhat

limited material at present available in herbaria it is often

difficult to come to definite conclusions.

The plant figured here seems to be a colour form of I.

polystachya, and agrees with Miller’s fig. (t. 155, fig. 2) in all

but colour. Again, except for colouring, it exactly matches

Bot. Mag. t. 623, which appears under the name I. erecta

(the specific name given by Bergius, Cap. V., in 1767, to /.

polystachya). Examination of living material from the Cape

Peninsula has shown that there is very considerable variation

in the size of the plants and flowers and also in the colouring,

which ranges from pure white to white tinged with blue or

green, or definitely blue on the backs of the segments and with

a small blue or green circular mark at the centre. Many of

the earlier botanists seem to have regarded this mark at the

centre of the corolla as a specific character, and have classi-

fied under I. maculata numerous colour varieties (many of

which seem rather to be I. polystachya ) and many very prob-

ably hybrids (for example, see Jacq. Hort. Schoenbr. t. 19-

22). Ker, in Bot. Mag. t. 623 notes that the plant figured

“ differs from I. maculata only in not having the large circular

stain at the base of its limb, and is perhaps scarcely to be pre-

served as a distinct species.” Typical I. maculata — that is

plants which compare very well with Miller’s figure (t. 156,

fig. 1) — has orange-yellow flowers, the segments frequently

streaked with red on the under surface and having a dark

brown patch at the centre on the upper surface. This was

figured in an earlier number of Flowering Plants of S. Africa

(Vol. 9, t. 329), but represents a somewhat dwarf specimen.

It is generally considerably taller, between 30 and 60 cm.

high, the stem usually simple but sometimes bearing one or

two branches.

Apart from the colouring, the following differences be-

tween I. polystachya and I. inaculata have been noted. In

I. polystachya the corm tunics are of fine, parallel fibres

and the leaves moderately firm in texture, whereas in I.

maculata the corm tunics are of strong, parallel fibres and the

leaves strongly ribbed. I. polystachya usually has a more or

less elongated inflorescence and two or three lateral branches,

while I. maculata, has a denser, more compact inflorescence,

and the stem is usually simple. The style in I. polystachya

usually reaches to the top of the perianth-tube, the branches

lying on the segments, whereas in I. maculata the style nearly

always reaches to or above the top of the filaments, the

branches alternating with the anthers. A smaller and less

robust form of I. polystachya is, however, fairly common,

and in this the stem is simple, the inflorescence few-flowered

and more compact and the style exserted from the perianth-

tube, reaching nearly to the top of the filaments. Intermediate

forms link this up with the typical I. polystachya.

The specimen figured was collected by Dr. C. L. Wicht at

Jonkershoek, Stellenbosch Division in November 1943.

Description: — Plant usually -7-1 m. high, bearing 1-3 branches;

stem up to 3 mm. diameter. Conn 2-2-5 cm. diameter, tunics of fine, soft

fibres. Leaves 6, up to 45 cm. long, -5-1 cm. broad, linear, acuminate,

moderately firm in texture, the mid-rib only fairly prominent. Inflorescence

a fairly dense, elongated spike, up to 12 cm. long and up to 30-flowered.

Bract 7-8 mm. long, usually with one central cusp, occasionally 2-3-cuspid-

ate, membranous, with 1-3 main veins and several less conspicuous veins.

Bracteoles slightly shorter than bract, with 2 prominent veins. Flowers

varying in colour from deep cyclamen, tinning dark purple on fading, to

dark or light shades of mauve, with a bluish-green mark at centre ; perianth-

tube 2-7-1-2 cm. long, about 1 mm. diameter, very slightly dilated at throat;

segments oblong, obtuse, 1-5 cm. long. Stamens inserted at throat of peri-

anth-tube ; filaments 2-5 mm. long ; anthers 6-7 mm. long. Style reaching

throat of perianth-tube; branches about 3 mm. long, spreading between

bases of filaments and lying on segments (Wicht in National Herbarium,

Pretoria, No. 27,245.) — G. J. Lewis.

Plate 968. — Fig. 1 and la, leaf and inflorescence, natural size; 2 and

2a outer and inner view of bract, x 5 ; 3, outer view of bracteole, x 5 ;

4, longitudinal section of corolla to show insertion of filaments, x 4; 5 and

5a, habit sketches showing two growth forms.

F.P.A., for Jan. 1945 (1946).

969

Huth lith.

Plate 969.

IXIA COCHLEARIS.

Cape Province.

Iridaceae.

Ixia cochlearis Lewis sp. nov., 1. longitubae N.E. Br., similiss ed peri-

anthii tubo superne dilatato foliis gracilibus linearibusque bene distinguitur.

Planta 30^45 cm. alta, caule simplice ad 2 mm. diam., a cormo oblique

nato. Cormus ad 2 cm. diam., oblique globosus; tunicae e fibris mollibus

plus minusve parallelis superne per 2-4 cm. productis compositae. Folia

3 basalia et 3 caulina, erecta vel suberecta, anguste linearia, ad 45 cm.

longa, 1-2 mm. lata. Spica sat laxa, 4-6 cm. longa, 6-10-flora. Bractea

5-6 mm. longa, plerumque tricuspidata, membranacea, nervis 3 plus minusve

promentibus pluribus minoribusque. Bracteolae bracteis similes sed brev-

iores, binervatae. Flores rosei, concolores; perianthii tubus 1-25-1-75 cm.

longus, basi 1 mm. diam., apicem versus gradatim ad 3 mm. diam. dilatatus ;

segmenta oblonga, obtusa, 1-1-1-5 cm. longa, 6-8 mm. lata. Stamina infra

tubi fauces 1-2 mm. inserta, erecta, filamentis 1 cm. longis antherisque

4-5 mm. longis. Stylus ad antherarum apices plus minusve extendens,

ramis 2 mm. longis minute ciliatis. Ovarium ad. 4 mm. longum, ad 3-5 mm.

diam.

Cape Province : Stellenbosch Div., Jonkershoek, Nov., Wicht in National

Herbarium Pretoria, no. 27,196 (type) ; Banhoek, Nov., Martley, in S.A.

Museum Herbarium, 53,175.

The species figured here is intermediate and clearly a

link between the sections Eu-Ixia and Morphixia. The peri-

anth-tube is not cylindrical as in the former section, nor

funnel-shaped as in the latter, but dilates gradually from

1 mm. diameter at the base to 3 mm. diameter at the throat.

A peculiar feature is the way in which the stem arises obliquely

from the somewhat flattened corm, and not from the apex

of a more or less globose corm which is usual in the genus.

The specific name is given on account of the spoon-shaped

perianth-segments, which, when the flower is fully open,

are patent with an incurved apex. In colouring and general

appearance of the inflorescence this species resembles I.

longituba N.E.Br., but can easily be distinguished by the

dilating perianth-tube and the slender, linear leaves.

Plants collected by Mr. J. F. Hartley at Banhoek, at the

end of November and beginning of December 1938, are con-

siderably smaller than the type (15-22 cm. high), possibly

due to the fact that they were collected on ground which had

recently been burnt.

Description : — Plant 30-45 cm. high, stem simple, aris-

ing obliquely from corm, up to 2 mm. diameter. Corm up to

2 cm. diameter, obliquely globose, tunics of fine, more or less

parallel fibres, extending upwards in a short neck 2-4 cm. long.

Leaves 3 basal and 3 cauline, narrow-linear, erect or sub-

erect, up to 45 cm. long, 1-2 mm. broad. Inflorescence a

moderately dense spike, 4-6 cm. long, 6-10-flowered. Bract

5-6 mm. long, usually tricuspidate, membranous, with 3

main veins and several smaller veins. Bracteoles slightly

shorter than the bracts, with 2 prominent veins. Flowers

pink, concolorous; perianth-tube 1-25-1 -75 cm. long, slender,

1 mm. diameter at base, dilating gradually to 3 mm. diam.

at throat; segments oblong, obtuse, 1*1-1 *5 cm. long, 6-8

mm. broad. Stamens inserted 1-2 mm. within throat of

perianth- tube, erect, filaments about 1 cm. long, anthers

4-5 mm. long. Style more or less reaching the top of the

anthers ; branches about 2 mm. long, minutely ciliate. Ovary

up to 4 mm. long, 3-5 mm. diameter. — G. J. Lewtis.

Plate 969. — Fig. 1, plants, natural size; 2, single flower, natural size;

3, bract, back view, X 6 ; 4, bract, inside view, x 6; 5, corolla in longi-

tudinal section showing insertion of filaments, x 4; 6, longitudinal section

of ovary, X 2-5; 7, habit sketch.

F.P.A., for Jan. 1945 (1946).

0 70

Plate 970.

CEROPEGIA RADICANS.

Cape Province .

ASCLEPIAD ACE AE .

Ceropegia radicans Schlechter in Engl. Bot. Jahrb. 18, Beibl. 45, 12

(1894); N. E. Brown in FI. Cap. 4, 1, 819 (1908).

Judged on the floral structure, Ceropegia radicans seems

more closely allied to some as yet undescribed species from

Tropical Africa, than it does to species from Southern Africa

where there is apparently no near affinity. The combination

of a prostrate semi-succulent habit and a large elongated flower

is exceptional in the genus as a whole. The long flowers

were mentioned specially by Schlechter when he first described

the plant in 1894, but in length of flower it has been excelled,

for example by C. insignis R. A. Dyer figured on Plate 902.

Ceropegia radicans is evidently a localised species and not

common. It was recorded only once from the wild state

before the publication of the Flora Capensis in 1908. This

was the type collection by H. G. Flanagan in 1889, from the

woods near the Kei Bridge in the Komgha district. The

present is the first occasion on which the species has been

illustrated.

The plant was collected by Major A. G. McLoughlin, also

in the Kei River Valley, and flowered by him in Pretoria.

His field note runs as follows : “ Grows prostrate, rooting

at the nodes, among shrubs and on rock ledges, on the slopes

of the Kei Valley near the farm Glen Roy to the north-west

of the main road and railway.” Although Major McLoughlin

has had success with the cultivation of C. radicans, it is not an

easy subject to keep from year to year away from its natural

environment. For one thing, it is rather sensitive to frost.

The corolla-tube is pale greenish-white with purple dots and

blotches, especially towards the mouth of the tube, while

the lobes are purplish-brown within the base, with a broad

transverse whitish band, followed by a narrow dark purple

stripe and bright green in the upper half up to the fused tips.

General information on the genus Ceropegia will be found

in the text accompanying the several species, which have

previously appeared in these pages.

Description : — Plant prostrate, creeping and rooting

at the nodes. Roots slightly fleshy, 3-4 mm. thick. Stems

slightly fleshy, 5 mm. in diameter, minutely striate, with inter-

nodes mainly 4-8 mm. long. Leaves fleshy, glabrous, petiol-

ate, petiole rarely up to 1 cm. long, stout ; blade up to 4 cm.

long, 2-5 cm. broad, ovate-elliptic or orbicular, acute or

apiculate, cuneate or rounded at the base. Peduncles arising

singly and laterally at the base of a petiole, up to 1 mm.

long, stout, 1-3-flowered; bracts minute, ovate, acuminate;

pedicels up to 3 cm. long, 2-2-5 mm. thick. Sepals 4-6 mm.

long, linear-lanceolate, acute. Corolla 6-8 cm. long; tube

pale greenish-white with purple dots and splotches, especially

towards the mouth of the tube, up to 5-5 cm. long, straight

or somewhat curved with a slightly 5-angled basal inflation,

1-75 cm. long, 6-7 mm. diameter, contracting to 3 mm., then

expanding trumpet-shaped to the mouth 1-5 cm. in diameter,

glabrous on the outer surface, softly hairy with long white

hairs within the basal inflation ; lobes purple-brown within

the base with a broad transverse whitish band near the base,

then a dark purple stripe and bright green in the upper

half, up to 2-5 cm. long, connivent erect, connate at the tips,

closely replicate forming wide openings between their bases,

thinly hairy and ciliate in the lower half, with purple clavate-

vibratile hairs on the margins towards the tips. Outer

corona pale yellowish-green, arising from the staminal column,

small and pouch-like with slightly spreading margin, fused

at the base to the inner corona; inner corona lobes pale

yellowish-green, 4 mm. long, linear, incumbent erect.

(National Herbarium, Pretoria, No. 27,237.) — R. A. Dyer.

Platk 970. — Fig. 1, part of plant, natural size; 2, top of corolla, X 1-5;

3, corona, x 7 ; 4, pollinia, x 16.

F.P.A., for Jan. 1945 (1946).

9 77

Huth lith.

Plate 971.

PELARGONIUM SALMONEUM.

Cape Province.

Geraniaceae.

Pelargonium salmoneum R. A. Dyer in Kew Bull. 1932, 447 ; Curtis’s

Bot. Mag. t. 9357 (1934).

The introduction of Pelargonium salmoneum into horti-

culture is referred to briefly under the original description

in the Kew Bulletin of 1932, and a fuller account appears

with the coloured illustration in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine,

1934. It may here be repeated that it was apparently

first treated as a horticultural subject in the municipal

gardens of Port Elizabeth, while its present position in horti-

culture may be gauged by the following reference to it in

the Pretoria Gardener, official organ of the Pretoria Horti-

cultural Society : “ This, with its salmon-pink flowers, is a

very attractive plant for any herbaceous border. It has a

very long flowering period — early spring to about the end of

November, and then again after the end of summer until

the first frost takes the flowers. The plant itself is resistant

to frost, and, if in a well-drained position, will last several

years. It grows easily from cuttings . . . can also be grown

from seed.”

Although Pelargonium salmoneum has spread widely in

cultivation in South Africa in recent years, its native habitat

is as yet unlocated, though there is a suggestion that it

originated from the neighbourhood of Van Staadens to the

west of Port Elizabeth. It is related to both P. zonale

Willd. and P. inquinans Ait., and has some important features

in common with P. acetosum Ait., another eastern Cape

Province species. A possible clue to its origin is an unnamed

specimen in the National Herbarium, Pretoria, collected in

1892 among rocks near Komgha by H. G. Flanagan (No.

1294). This may be more nearly related to our plant than

any of the three species mentioned above, but in the absence

of field knowledge it is not possible to assess the importance

of small differences in stem thickness and shape of calyx.

Also the specimen gives the impression of coming from a

slightly more shrubby plant than P. salmoneum.

Description : — A densely tufted perennial bush 40-80

cm. high. Branches terete, 4-5 mm. thick, soft when young,

becoming hard with age, shortly pubescent. Leaves petio-

late; petioles 1-5-4 cm. long; lamina semi-orbicular or reni-

form, more or less cordate at the base, shallowly 5-lobed

with the lobes 3-5-toothed or crenate, up to 4-5 cm. long,

5 cm. broad, fleshy and slightly folded upwards, very minutely

glandular-hispid on both surfaces, and in addition sparsely

covered with longer simple hairs, sometimes somewhat

glaucous. Stipules broadly ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 5-13

mm. long, 4-7 mm. broad. Peduncles 4-20 cm. long, thinly

and shortly pubescent, each bearing 4-20 flowers; bracts

subtending the flowers about 6, similar to the stipules in

shape, but smaller, soon deciduous. Flowers pedicellate ;

the pedicel 2*8-3 cm. long, with the fused nectariferous

calyx-spur extending about 2-5 cm. of its length, shortly

glandular pubescent. Sepals lanceolate or oblong lanceolate,

acute, 1-1*2 cm. long. Petals salmon-pink, the upper two

or all red-veined, subequal, the two upper ones slightly

narrower than the rest, obovate-cuneate, subtruncate at the

apex, 2*3-2-6 cm. long, 11-1 -4 cm. broad. Stamens fertile

5, opposite the sepals and more or less equal to them in length ;

staminodes 5, opposite the petals, either all much shorter,

or three short and two nearly equal to filaments. Ovary

densely villous. Fruit 4-4-5 cm. long, the beak with spreading

white or light grey-hairs. (National Herbarium, Pretoria,

No. 27,191.) — R. A. Dyer.

Plate 971. — Fig. 1, flowering twig, natural size; 2, pedicel with fused

nectariferous calyx-spur, calyx and stamens, x 2-5; 3, androecium, x 4;

4, habit.

F.P.A., for Apr. 1945 (1946).

9 72

Plate 972.

CISSUS UNGUIFORMIFOLIUS.

Transvaal and Bechuanaland.

Ampelidaceae.

Cissus unguiformifolius C. A. Smith in Burtt Davy Manual FI. PI.

& Ferns of the Transvaal & Swaziland 2, p. xx (1932).

In a rock garden Cissus unguiformifolius makes quite a

decorative subject. Its long stems trailing over the rocks

bear tufts of large subfleshy leaves, which are a pleasing

green colour tinged with crimson-lake. Between the leaves

are delicate purplish-red tendrils and short inflorescences

bearing small flowers disposed on slender purplish-red pedicels.

Although small, the flowers are most interesting if examined

with a lens. As shown on the plate, the buds are more or

less cylindrical, being only slightly constricted at the middle.

With a sudden movement these buds open and the petals

reflex strongly. The centre of the flower, which is exposed

by this action, consists of 4 stamens which have their filaments

incumbent on the ovary and then grow erect in a little column

with the globose anthers on top. Alternating with the stamens

are the 4 large glands, which are adnate to the base of the ovary.

After an hour or two, with another sudden movement, the

stamens spring out to the position shown in Fig. 5, and the

petals drop off, followed shortly after by the stamens.

The ripe fruit adds considerably to the attraction of

the plant, for it is bright “peach red” (R.C.S.). The skin is

smooth, like that of a grape, which belongs to the same

family, and the yellow flesh is juicy and sweet. No chemical

analysis has yet been made of these fruits, but some native

tribes declare they are poisonous while others eat them.

It is known from personal experience that eating one of these

fruits resulted in a very unpleasant sensation in the tongue

and lips, like that caused by chewing a piece of the leaf of

“ elephant’s ear.”

The branching of the plant is a good example of sympodial

development in a phanerogam. The inflorescences which

appear to be lateral are really terminal on lateral branch-

lets, with a bud arising at the same point or occasionally

also at the base of the peduncle and developing strongly

as if it were the main axis. This turning aside of the main

axis and the strong development of the secondary branches

result in the zig-zag internodes of the stems.

Cissus unguiformifolius has been recorded from north

of the Zoutpansberg near Messina and near Waterpoort,

in the Zeerust district, and near Ramoutsa in the Bechuana-

land Protectorate. It is easily distinguished from Cissus

hereroensis Schinz, and other species which might occur

in the same region by being quite without pubescence in all

parts. From the glabrous Cissus Schlechteri Gilg & Brandt,

according to the description of the latter, it differs in its

distinctly procumbent habit and the many tendrils along the

stem. Also, if the inflorescence described as terminal in

C. Schlechteri means apical, it would differ in this respect,

too, for the apical section is without an inflorescence in this

plant.

The specimen figured has been growing in the garden

of the Division of Botany and Plant Pathology for many years,

and most probably came from one of the Transvaal localities

mentioned above. The plate was prepared in April 1944.

Description : — Plant procumbent, glabrous in all parts. Stems green

or in parts suffused with crimson-lake, herbaceous, about 3 ft. long, sympo-

dially branched, leafy and tendril-bearing for all its length ; branches terete,

on the average 3-5 mm. diameter, thickened at the nodes, internodes

about 3 cm. long. Leaves digitately 3-5-foliolate, sessile or very shortly

petioled ; stipules ovate, oblique, 6 mm. long, 2-5 mm. broad, green or tinged

with crimson-lake. Leaflets sub-fleshy, green, sometimes tinged in part

with crimson-lake, varying very much in size even on the same leaf, the

central ones being much larger than the lateral, lanceolate to oblong-obovate,

acute or obtuse at the apex and distinctly cuneate at the base, generally

4-12 cm. long, 1-3-4 cm. broad, margins distantly toothed. Tendrils

usually purplish-red, up to about 16 cm. long, forked at the apex, one branch

shorter than the other. Inflorescence a compoimd cyme, branched above

the middle, terminal on lateral branches, the secondary branch continuing

as the main axis and the inflorescence thus appearing to be axillary ; peduncle

glabrous, 2-5-6 cm. long. Buds broadly cylindrical, slightly constricted at

the middle, glabrous. Pedicels 5-6 mm. long, thickened at the apex.

Calyx very small, rim-like with 4 minute tooth-like lobes. Petals 4, green-

ish-yellow, the apex purplish-red, oblong, 3 mm. long, strongly reflexed,

cucullate near the apex, margin near apex minutely papillose. Stamens 4,

filaments incumbent on the ovary and then erect, 2 mm. long, anthers

globose. Glands 4, above 1 mm. square, alternating with the stamens,

joined at the base to the ovary. Ovary yellowish-green, more or less globose,

about 1 mm. long, half submerged in the glands, produced at apex into a

1-75-mm. style. Fruit peach-red (R.C.S. PI. I), pendulous, oblong in out-

line, 1-4 cm. long, 8 mm. diameter, skin smooth, mesocarp yellow-orange,

fleshy and juicy; seed one, very hard, endosperm copious. (National

Herbarium, Pretoria, No. 27,238.) — I. C. Verdoorn.

Plate 972. — Fig. 1, whole plant much reduced; 2, fruiting inflorescence,

natural size ; 3, bud and pedicel enlarged ; 4, flower just opened, enlarged ;

5, flower after petals have dropped and stamens spread out, enlarged;

6, flower after petals and stamens have fallen, showing the 4 large glands

of the disc attached to the base of the ovary, enlarged.

F.P.A., for Apr. 1945 (1946).

97 3

Plate 973.

WATSONIA SPECTABILIS.

Cape Province.

Iridaoeae.

Watsonia spectabilis Schinz in M6m. L’Herb. Boiss. 20, p. 14 (1900).

Although not among the tall and stately members of the

genus, this Watsonia, by reason of the size of the flowers

and the brilliancy of their colouring, is to be ranked among

the more spectacular species, and well deserves its specific

name spectabilis, or showy. Schinz remarks, at the end of

his original description, that it “ would be a conspicuous

ornament of our gardens if taken into cultivation ”. Yet

it somehow escaped the notice of the earlier plant-explorers,

and it was not until 1892 that the first collection was recorded —

namely, that of Dr. R. Schlechter from the Sir Lowry’s

Pass area, probably in the Caledon Division. Since then

it has been found in the Divisions of Stellenbosch, Paarl,

Ceres, and Worcester.

The general appearance of the perianth and, especially,

the set of the segments are not very unlike those of some

forms of Homoglossum Oawleri N.B. Br. The marked pro-

nounced recurving of the anterior segment is a distinctive

character (shared to some slight extent by its nearest ally,

W. coccinea Herb.), and produces a completely zygomorphic

perianth which is anomalous in the genus.

Luxuriantly grown plants may reach a height of two feet

or a little more.

The plant figured flowered in the National Botanic Gardens,

Kirstenbosch, in September 1923.

Description : — Plant 46 cm. high. Corm ovate, 3 cm.

diameter, tunics reticulate. Basal leaves 4, linear, acuminate,

inconspicuously veined, margins scarcely thickened, loosely

spirally twisted, about 30 cm. long, 5-11 mm. broad. In-

florescence branched from the uppermost leaf ; terminal

spike 6-flowered, flowers ascending. Bracts oblong acuminate,

herbaceous except at the apex, 3-8-3-5 cm. long; bracteoles

united, as long as the bracts or a little longer. Perianth 9-3

cm. long, the tube up to 1*1 cm. diameter, the lower filiform

part slightly longer than the cylindrical part; segments

oblong acute, up to 3-3 cm. long, the outer 1 cm., the inner

1-3 cm. broad, the anterior segment decurved, the posterior

directed forwards. Stamens arched under the posterior

segment and reaching beyond the middle. Stigmas reaching

the apex of the segment, up to 2 mm. long. (National

Botanic Gardens, No. 149,422 in Bolus Herbarium.) — L.

Bolus.

Plate 973. — Fig. 1, upper portion of leaf; 2, flower, the perianth cut

and laid open, nat. size.

F.P.A., for Apr. 1945 (1946).

Kuth lith.

Plate 974.

WATSONIA PYRAMIDATA.

Cape Province.

Iridaceae.

Watsonia pyramidata ( Andr .) Stapf in Bot. Mag. sub. tab. 9261 (1929).

Gladiolus pyramidatus Andr. Bot. Rep. t. 335 ; G. iridifolius var. Jacq. Ic. t.

235 ; Watsonia rosea Ker in Konig et Sims’ Ann. i. 230 ; Bot. Mag. t. 1072 ;

Gen. Irid. 125; Ait. Hort. Kew edit. 2, i, 94; Baker, Handb. Irid. 177.

Neuberia rosea Eckl. Top. Verw. 37. Watsonia striata Klatt, Erganz. 18.

Growing socially, this noble Watsonia sometimes makes

lovely masses of rose-pink in the early summer on the hill-

sides and mountain-slopes of the south-western districts of

the Cape Province. On the Cape Peninsula it is found in

association with the tall royal-blue Aristea thyrsiflora, Leuca-

dendron argenteum, L. adscendens, and a tangle of lower

growth, often reaching a height of 5 feet or more, and lasting

in flower longer than most of its kind because of the successive

development of the several lower branches of the inflorescence,

when the terminal spike has finished its flowering. The loose

arrangement of the individual flowers, their graceful drooping

position, and the attractive markings at the base of the seg-

ments, are added charms ; and the handsome evergreen

foliage is appreciated in gardens. Taken to Europe by the

earlier travellers, W. pyramidatus may even have flowered

there as long ago as 1612, and perhaps grew in the famous

Jardin des Plantes (or Jardin du Roi, as it was called before

the Prench Revolution) in Lamarck’s time. It flowered

in Austria, and a beautiful plate was published by Jacquin

in 1789, and later in England (1803), when Andrews figured it

in the Botanists’ Repository as Gladiolus pyramidatus.

This earlier specific name had been overlooked, has since

been restored, and the name, rosea, by which this Watsonia

had been known for a century and a quarter, has had to yield

to the former’s priority. This species, like W. Ardernei,

figured under Plate 750, belongs to the subgenus, Neuberia.

The drawing was made from a wild plant growing at Kirsten-

bosch in November, 1923.

Description : — Plant 1-55 m. high. Basal leaves 5,

linear acuminate, veins inconspicuous, up to about 73 cm.

long, 2-2*5 cm. broad; cauline leaves 6, the lower exceeding

the internodes. Inflorescence branched from the upper 4

cauline leaves ; terminal spike laxly 21-fl., the flowers more or

less nodding. Bracts much shorter than the internodes,

herbaceous in the lower, becoming brown and membranous

in the upper half, 1*8-1 *2 cm. long; bracteoles united as long

as the bracts. Perianth 6*5-7 cm. long, the filiform part of the

tube a little shorter than the funnel-shaped part; segments

a little longer than the tube, spreading, obtuse or the outer

abruptly acute, up to 1*7 cm. broad. Stamens projecting

forwards from the middle and then slightly declinate, the

anthers becoming arched, reaching a little beyond the middle

of the segment. Style declinate; stigmas 6-12, 1-2 mm.

long. Capsule cylindrical, up to 2*5 cm. long. Seeds winged

at base as well as apex, 1*2 cm. long (= Bolus 4560 in Bolus

Herbarium.) — L. Bolus.

Plate 974. — Fig. 1, part of inflorescence, natural size; 2, upper portion

of leaf; 3, flower, the perianth cut and laid open, nat. size; 4, style-branch

with 4 stigmas, enlarged ; 5, capsules; 6, seed, natural size ; 7, habit.

F.P.A., for Apr. 1945 (1946).

975

R. Brown del.

Hulii lith

Plate 975.

DRIMIOPSIS CRENATA.

Transvaal.

Liliaceae.

Drimiopsis crenata F. van der Merwe sp. nov., a speciebus aliis foliis

marginibus crenatis, praesertim viridi-maculatis, floribus in parte purpureo-

brunneis, alabastris haud albidis differt.

Bulbus ovoideus ca. 5 cm. diametro, basin versus discoideus. Folia

2-3, lanceolata, ca. 10 cm. longa et 3 cm. lata, basin versus se amplexa

marginibus crenatis saepe maculis viridibus vel purpureis picta. Scapi

1-2, ca. 10 cm. longi, racemis densis ca. 4 cm. longis ; pedicellus ca. 1 mm.

longus sine bractea. Segmenta perianthii ca. 2 mm. longa cucullata viridia

vel purpureo-brunnea. Anther ae breves inclusae. Ovarium ovoideum,

sessile, stylo breve 3-partitum, ovulis 6.

Transvaal : — Waterberg Distr., in moist places near Rooiberg, Sept.,

van der Merwe 2805 in National Herbarium, Pretoria No. 27,253.

This new species differs from Drimiopsis BurJcei Bak.,

a near affinity, in the greater size of the plants and the absence

of the usual whitish appearance of the buds. It is smaller

than D. Saundersiae Bak. from Natal, which it resembles

in the brownish marks on the perianth-segments. It is plenti-

ful in moist shady spots near Rooiberg and Papagaaikraal,

Southern Waterberg, Transvaal, and flowers about September.

The genus Drimiopsis consists of species which prefer

almost total shade, and find it either under large trees or at

the base of overhanging boulders. They do not depend

on bright colours to attract insect visitors to their slightly-

opening flowers, which cannot be considered beautiful.

Nevertheless one species at least is widely grown in South

African gardens, namely D. maculata (see Plate 957), probably

on account of its spotted leaves, its prolific habit under re-

latively unfavourable conditions, and its unusual whitish

buds. The present species, however, only appears to flourish

where moisture as well as shade are present.

Description : — Bulb ovoid, whitish, about 5 cm. in dia-

meter, with a butt-like persistent axis from the periphery

of which the roots arise. Leaves 2-3, oblong-lanceolate,

up to 10 cm. or more long with finely undulant margins,

and usually showing blotches of a darker green on the upper

surface and fine purplish marks on the under surface near the

base. Inflorescences 1-2 ; scape up to 12 cm. long with a

dense raceme about 3 cm. long. Pedicels about 1 mm. long,

bracts aborted. Outer 'perianth -segments very slightly di-

verging; the three inner connivent, all typically cucullate,

marked with purplish-brown along their middle. Anthers

short, included. Ovary sessile, ovoid, 3-chambered with 2

ovules in each chamber; style short and pointed.

Plate 075. — Fig. 1, entire plant, natural size; 2, flower, x 6; 3,

longitudinal section through flower, x 4; 4, portion of perianth with sta-

mens, x 6 ; 5, ovary and style, x 6; 6, transverse section through ovary,

X 10.

F.P.A., for Apr. 1945 (1946).

9 76

G . Parker del.

Huth lith.

Plate 976.

DRIMIOPSIS PURPUREA.

Natal.

Liliaoeae.

Drimiopsis purpurea F. van der Merwe, sp. nov. a speciebus aliis

floribus obscure-purpureis foliis minute pilosis et verrucosis differt.

Bulbus ovoideus, 1-2 cm. diametro, subtus discoideus. Folia ad 2, longe

petiolata,petiolis ad 8 cm.longis basin versus sese amplectentitus valde canali-

culatis striis brunneis transversis pictis ; limbi elliptici, acuti, verrucas pilosque

albidos minutos ferentes, ad 8 cm. longi et 4 cm. lati. Scapi ad 2, ad ca.

20 cm. longi, racemis laxis cylindraceis ad 5 cm. longis, 1 cm. diametro ca.

20-floris. Pedicellus ad 2 mm. longus bractea minuta carnosa ; segmenta

conniventia cucullata ad 2 mm. longa obscure purpurea ; filamenta brevia

antheris inclusis ; ovarium sessile ovatum apicem versus acute elongatum 3-

loculare, ovulis 6 ; stylus brevissimus, capitatus.

Natal : — Paulpietersburg Distr. ; near Pivaan, van der Merwe 2781 in

National Herbarium, Pretoria 27,275 (type) ; near Luneberg, van der Merwe

2779 in National Herbarium, Pretoria 27,276 (co-type).

This unusual species of Drimiopsis is found growing at the

base of ironstone boulders near Pivaan and Luneburg, in

the neighbourhood of Paulpietersburg, where it flowers about

September. The deep colour of its flowers, and the pilose

leaves distinguish it from other species of this genus. It has

been stated (see Drimiopsis crenata, Plate 975) that this genus

does not include species with attractive flowers. Perhaps an

exception could be made in the case of this new species, of

which the racemes, although small, attract attention by their

soft purple colouring. The size of the flowers varies consider-

ably, as may be seen from the two plants illustrated.

Description : — Bulb whitish, ovoid, 1-2 cm. in diameter,

giving rise to one or more deeply-canaliculate petioles, which

embrace the axis. Leaves petiolate, up to 20 cm. long,

elliptical-acute, with blades up to 8 cm. long and 4 cm. wide,

both surfaces covered with fine papillae, and distinctly

pilose. Raceme protruded beyond the leaves, cylindrical,

lax, about 5 cm. long and 1 cm. in diameter. Pedicels about

2 mm. long and subtended by minute fleshy bracts. Perianth -

segments free, connivent, cucuUate, about 2 mm. long, deep

purple. Filaments triangular, arising some distance from the

base of the corolla, anthers included. Ovary sessile, 3-

chambered, ovoid, prolonged above into a nipple from which

the short style arises ; ovules 6.

Plate 976.— Fig. 1 (type); 2, co-type, showing smaller flowers; 3,

single flower, enlarged ; 4, portion of perianth, showing anthers ; 5, ovary,

enlarged ; 6, transverse section of ovarv, enlarged.

F.P.A., for Apr. 1945 (1946).

9 77

mi

R. Bro'WTt del.

Huth litlx

Plate 977.

HOODIA LUGARDI.

British Bechuanaland, Transvaal.

Asclepiad aceae .

Hoodia Lugardi N.E. Br. in FI. Trop. Afr. 4, 1, 491 (1904); White

& Sloane, The Stapelieae 3, 1066 (1937).

This is the second occasion on which a plant has been

figured in this work under the name Hoodia Lugardi. The

first, which appears on plate 617, has since been determined

as a distinct species under the name H. Largii, for an account

of which, one should refer to the Stapelieae vol. 3, p. 1067.

In the present case too, there is a possibility that more accurate

knowledge of the typical form of H. Lugardi will reveal speci-

fic differences between the two plants. H. Lugardi was de-

scribed by Brown in Flora of Tropical Africa (1904), from dried

flowers collected near Chukutsa Pan by Maj. E. J. Lugard,

while on one of his two Ngamiland expeditions (1896-1898).

The Chukutsa Pan is part of the Botletle river system. It is

250 miles or more north-west of the farm Loretto, on the

north-western boundary of the Transvaal, where the present

plant was found by Mr. Racks. The farm Loretto is about

due south from Rhodes Drift and approximately 50 miles

north-north- west of Waterpoort in the Zoutpansberg district.

The plants, up to about 2 ft. tall, were growing among

“ Mopane ” trees ( Copaifera mopane Kirk) in sandy volcanic

soil. The figure was made from a plant which flowered under

Mr. V. van Son’s care in September 1944, at Pretoria North.

Whether or not our plant is specifically distinct from H.

Lugardi is not so important as the locality record in the Trans-

vaal. Previously the genus Hoodia was unrecorded from the

Transvaal, all other sites being in neighbouring territories to the

west of this. Thus Mr. Rachs, who is a prospector by pro-

fession, revealed something more interesting than precious

stones on this occasion.

The shape of the flower preserved by Lugard is inter-

preted as being concave-rotate, obsoletely 5-lobed, each lobe

very abruptly terminated by a subulate point; whereas the

corolla of our plant is fairly obviously 5-lobed, and not very

abruptly terminated by subulate points. These are charac-

ters on which to concentrate in any future comparison, since

the coronal structure and other features, including the brick-

red colour, appear to agree closely. Referring to H. Lugardi

in the Stapelieae, White and Sloane say that it is one of the

most interesting species in the genus, for it typifies a group of

plants distributed through Bechuanaland Protectorate, Brit-

ish Bechuanaland and South West Africa, whose distinguish-

ing character is their 2-3i-inch flower, with the surface of the

corolla, especially around the centre, dotted with small

papillae, tipped with some form of hair or bristle. It was

impracticable to reveal this feature in the coloured illustration,

but it is shown in the pencil sketches, Figs. 4 and 5.

Description : — A densely tufted succulent plant up to about 2 ft. tall

or slightly more. Branches arising successively from the base to enlarge

the diameter of the bush, 3-5-4 cm. diameter, including angles ; angles about

15, 7-8 mm. prominent, with closely set spinescent-tipped tubercles;

prickles up to about 6 mm. long. Flowers produced on branches above

20 cm. tall, 1-2 from a flowering eye developed successively. Pedicel

about 5 mm. long, stout, glabrous. Sepals 4—5 mm. long, ovate or lanceo-

late, acuminate, glabrous. Corolla brick red, 4-5-5-5 cm. diameter, with a

basal cup-shaped crimson 3 mm. deep tube, very slightly raised at the mouth

into an obscurely 5-angled crimson annulus, up to about 3 cm. from centre

of corolla to tip of lobe, 1-7-2 cm. from centre to sinus, somewhat concave,

but the margins of the lobes slightly recurved and making the central por-

tion of the lobes more prominent and causing a depression to extend from the

sinuses; lobes terminated by a subulate point about 6 mm. long, glabrous

on outer surface, moderately covered on the inner surface with erect brick-

red -5-2 mm. long hairs, each hair arising from a minute tubercle. Corona

within basal cup of corolla ; outer corona subcupular; the lobes spreading

about 1 mm., forming pockets within their bases and bifid at the apex;

inner corona lobes united towards the base with the outer corona, with the

apical portion incumbent on the backs of the anthers, oblong, obtuse, not

meeting in the centre. (National Herbarium, Pretoria, No. 27,260.) —

R. A. Dyer.

Plate 977. — Fig. 1, tip of flowering branch, natural size; 2, back view

of flower, slightly enlarged ; 3, bud among stem prickles, slightly enlarged ;

4, section of corolla showing central cup-shaped tube, x 1-5; 5, corolla

cup and hair-tipped papillae, x 4 ; 6, corona, x 10 ; 7, habit.

F.P.A., for Apr. 1945 (1946).

9 7 8

Plate 978.

COMBRETUM MICROPHYLLUM.

Nyasaland, the Rhodesias, Portuguese East Africa, Transvaal.

COMBRETACEAE.

Combretum microphyllum Klotzsch in Peters' Reise Mossamb. Bot. 1.

74 (1862) ; Lawson in FI. Trop. Afr. Vol. 2, p. 427 (1871).

In its natural habitat on the banks of streams and rivers,

Combretum microphyllum overruns all the shrubs and trees

within its reach, scrambling to the tops of even the tallest of

them. When in bloom it makes a great display, for the

clustered flowers, with conspicuous crimson red stamens,

are arranged in large flat compound inflorescences which

cascade down the whole length of its support. In a garden

it may be grown as a shrub. The branching, because of its

scrambling habit, is low and arching, each limb bearing uni-

laterally many long festooning branches which in turn bear,

very profusely, short slender ultimate branchlets spreading

out in a more or less flat plume-like inflorescence. Many of

the lower branches bear only leaves, and here the leaves are

on the average about 8 cm. long and 4-3 cm. broad. On the

flowering branches the contracted racemes are often sub-

tended by leaves, but here the leaves are only about 1-2 cm.

long and 0*5-1 ’5 cm. broad. Evidently these small leaves

in the inflorescence gave rise to the specific name.

The specimen figured was taken from a shrub growing in

the gardens at the Union Buildings, Pretoria. It was at the

height of its flowering period on the 11th October when the

plate was prepared and at the end of November the fruits

had matured. Figure 6 was then added. Two months later

the appearance of the shrub, then bearing leaves only, was

still quite attractive. The small leaves on the flowering

branches had grown a little bigger but were still only about

half the size of the average leaf on the leaf-bearing branches

(see figure 3) and these, though still fresh green, had not grown

larger, the majority being 8 cm. long and 4-7 cm. broad.

In the Transvaal Combretum microphyllum is found in the

northern and eastern regions. In these warmer climes the

flowers may appear very much earlier than in the garden

in Pretoria. This species is evidently closely related to C.

paniculatum (see Engler and Diels Monograph Combretaceae)

which is described as having a larger leaf, 10 cm. or more long,

and an ovate petal instead of suborbicular or more or less

“ kidney shaped ” as described by Engler. Not having

specimens of the latter species it is impossible to say here

whether these differences are of specific value and whether

they are supported by further differences.

C. paniculatum occurs in Senegambia and southward to

Angola, whereas C. microphyllum has been recorded from

Nyasaland, Northern and Southern Rhodesia and Portuguese

East Africa to the area already mentioned in the Transvaal

and possibly extends as far south as Zululand.

Description : — A shrub or small tree with festooning branches often

scandent. Branches ashy grey, at first densely ferruginous-pubescent,

elongate with numerous short, floriferous, ultimate branchlets spreading

in more or less one plane. Leaves alternate but those on flowering shoots

often opposite, about 1-9 cm. long, 0-5-4-7 cm. broad, oblong-elliptic to

obovate-oblong, or suborbicular, rounded at base and apex, apiculate,

pubescent on both surfaces, glabrescent with age, the hairs usually persisting

along the midrib or in axils of the veins, upper surface of young leaves

sparsely lepidote; petiole 0-2-1 -7 cm. long, densely pubescent, glabrescent

with age, geniculate at the base. Inflorescence s clustered on the short ulti-

mate branches, more or less unilateral. Flowers about 12 borne in each

contracted raceme; bracts subulate, ferruginous-pubescent, 1-5 mm. long;

pedicels pubescent including fusiform receptacle, up to 5 mm. long. Calyx

green, tubular, about 3 mm. long, pubescent within and without ; segments

(sometimes 5) short, deltoid. Petals crimson-red, 4, inserted in the throat

of the calyx tube, suborbicular, 1-45 mm. long, 1-5 mm. wide, emarginate

at apex, obscurely clawed at base. Stamens crimson-red, 8, about 8 mm.

long, 4 inserted near base of the calyx tube and 4 about midway on the

tube ; anthers crimson-red, about 1 mm. long ; pollen carmine. Ovary

inferior, 2 ovuled. Fruit a 4-winged samara, minutely pubescent, 2-5 cm.

long, wings pale greenish yellow mottled in parts with red, about 7-10 mm.

wide. (National Herbarium, Pretoria, No. 27,263.) — I. C. Verdoorn.

Plate 978. — Fig. 1, flowering branch, natural size; 2, contracted

raceme, x 2; 3, leaf from leafy branch natural size ; 4, longitudinal section

of flower, x 8; 5, calyx tube split open showing the small petals inserted

in the throat, x 3; 6, samara, natural size taken over a month later; 7,

habit in garden, much reduced.

F.P.A., for Apr. 1945 (1946).

&V9

R.Brown del,

Huth litTi.

Plate 979.

TULBAGHIA NATALENSIS.

Natal.

Liliaceae.

Tulbaghia natalensis Baker in Gard. Chron. 1891, 668; FI. Cap. 6,

405 (1897) ; Medley Wood Natal Plants , 1, plate 29 (1899).

The common name “ wild garlic ” is applied to several

species of Tulbaghia in South Africa; the common name

rather obviously indicating that the plants possess a garlic-

like odour. In T. violacea Harv., appearing on Plate 9 (1921),

both the flowers and vegetative parts possess this unpleasant

character, whereas in others, such as T. fragrans Verdoorn,

Plate 438 (1931), the flowers are sweetly scented and it

is only on breaking the surface of the leaves or exposing the

roots that a garlic smell is detected. In this respect T.

natalensis resembles T. fragrans , which is, however, a larger

and more attractive mauve-flowered species, and which has

gained favour in cultivation of recent years.

T. natalensis was forwarded to the Royal Botanic Gardens,

Kew, in October 1890 by Medley Wood, and it flowered there

the following year. Medley Wood records in his Natal

Plants (1899) that the type specimen was collected near Mooi

River Railway Station at an altitude of 4,500 ft. The next

record was by Miss Stainbank near Howick. It has been

collected several times since, and always within a 30-mile

radius or so of the type locality, and always in a moist habitat

— at Nottingham Road by E. E. Galpin; Dargle Road by

A. O. D. Mogg, Estcourt and Tabamhlope by O. West;

and also at Tabamhlope by Dr. F. Z. v. d. Merwe, whose speci-

men has been figured after flowering at the National Her-

barium, Pretoria. Although the corolla is usually white,

according to some collectors it is occasionally tinged with

lilac, while the corona is orange or greenish-coloured.

When Baker first described T. natalensis in The Gardener’s

Chronicle he compared it with T. alliacea (one of the commonest

of the garlic-smelling group), and distinguished it from that

by the segments of the perianth being longer than the tube.

By perianth tube Baker refers to the fused portion below the

outer perianth lobes, whereas there may be some confusion

on account of the inner lobes being fused with the corona

for a greater length, and since the corona tube arises from

and is continuous -with the perianth tube.

Following general practice, our plant is referred above

to the family Liliaceae, but particularly for the guidance of

students, attention should again be drawn to the work by

Hutchinson, Families of Flowering Plants, Monocotyledons

1934, p. 130, in which the genera Tulbaghia and Agapanthns

are referred, mainly on account of an unbellate inflorescence,

to the family Amaryllidaceae.

Description : — Plant tufted from a thick rhizomatous rootstock with

no typical bulbous formation. Leaves 6-8 from each growing point, firm,

light green with a garlic smell on being broken ; the outermost Unear, up to

about 25 cm. long, 6-7-5 mm. broad, obtuse, with a white clasping membran-

ous base, shghtly concave on the upper surface with the margins slightly

prominent ; young leaves between the mature leaves indicate the production

of new growing points which will mature the foUowing season. Scapes

1-3 from each tuft of leaves, 25-40 cm. taU, terete or very sUghtly compressed ;

Umbel 6-10 flowered; pedicels up to about 2-5 cm. long; spathe valves 2,

lanceolate, usuaUy 2-3 cm. long. Perianth white; tube cylindric campanu-

late, sUghtly 3-angled, producing a tubular corona from within ; outer

lobes fused for 4-5-5 mm. at the base with the free portion 7-8 mm. long,

4-5-5-5 mm. broad, obtuse, sometimes notched near the apex; inner lobes

fused for 6-7 mm. at the base, with the free portion about 5 mm. long and 4

mm. broad, obtuse, concave; corona tubular, 6-lobed, greenish or orange-

coloured; tube, including the perianth tube, 7-8 mm. long, extending

about 1-1-5 beyond the inner perianth lobe attachment; lobes 1-1-5 mm.

long, sometimes notched near the base or with a minute intermediate lobe.

Anthers biseriate, subsessile, 2-2-5 mm. long, oblong, divided at the base,

dorsifixed ; the upper three near the mouth of corona ; the lower three ex-

tending near to the base of the upper three. Ovary sessile, obtusely 3-

angled, 2-5 ovules in each loculus ; style 1 mm. long with a comparatively

large capitate stigma 0-75 mm. diameter, (van der Merwe 2585 in National

Herbarium, Pretoria, No. 27,262.) — R. A. Dyer.

Plate 979: — Fig. 1, plant, natural size; 2, longitudinal section of

flower, x 6; 3, flower, x 5; 4, section of perianth showing attachment

of perianth lobes.

F.P.A., for Apr. 1945 (1946).

R. Brown del.

Huth lith.

Plate 980.

ALOE THOMPSONIAE.

Transvaal.

Liliaoeae.

Aloe Thompsoniae Groenewald in Tydskrif vir Wetenskap en Kuns

1936, p. 64.

A. Thompsoniae is one of the smallest Aloes in the Section

Leptoaloe, its nearest ally being A. nubigena Groenewald

from the Drakensberg near Graskop, Eastern Transvaal.

Other more remote allies in the same section are A. Nuttii

Bak. from Northern Rhodesia and Tanganyika Territory

(Plate 762), A. Buchananii from Nyasaland (Plate 763), and

A. ketiensis Christian from Tanganyika Territory (Plate 785).

Aloe Thompsoniae is named after Dr. (Mrs.) Thompson

of Haenertzburg, hence the alteration of the name ending

from the original spelling A. Thompsoni. Dr. Thompson

first collected plants about 1924 on the Wolkberg, which is

about 45 miles east of Pietersburg. Plants were subsequently

collected there also by Mr. A. O. D. Mogg, who found them

growing in fissures of the quartzite near the summit of the

Wolkberg, at an altitude of 6,500 feet, and in an area where

the annual rainfall averages approximately 75 inches.

This rare and very charming little Aloe does best in culti-

vation when grown in shady places in pots and watered freely.

It increases from suckers, and usually flowers in December-

January. The accompanying plate was prepared from plants

flowering at the National Herbarium, Pretoria, during January

1945.

Description : — A succulent plant with fusiform roots.

Stem obsolete or up to 4 cm. long. Leaves up to 18, rosulate,

spreading-erect and becoming recurved, gradually attenuate

from the base, 15-20 cm. long, 1*5-2 cm. broad at the base;

upper surface canaliculate, green, obscurely lineate, with a

few small narrow white markings in the lower third; lower

surface convex, copiously white spotted near the base ;

MARY GUNN LIBRARY

SOUTH AFRICA'.1 NATIONAL BIODIVERSITY INSTITUTE

PRIVATE BAG X 101

margins with a cartilagenous edge armed with firm white

teeth about 1 mm. long, 1-2 mm. distant. Inflorescence

simple, up to 20 cm. high, 1-3 from a rosette. Peduncle

semi-terete, 4 mm. diameter, with a few ovate-acuminate, sub-

amplexicaul sterile bracts from above the middle ; the bracts

thin, scarious, white, 3-5 nerved. Raceme capitate, 3 cm.

long, 10-15-flowered ; the open flowers pendulous, coral-

red ; the buds green tipped. Pedicels 20-25 cm. long, shorter

upwards. Bracts ovate-acuminate, about 1 cm. long, 5-6

mm. broad at base, thin, dry, 5-8 nerved. Perianth up to

3 cm. long, slightly stipitate at base, cylindrical, straight;

the mouth wide open; outer segments free to the base,

obscurely 3-5 nerved; the nerves greenish at the subacute

spreading apices; inner segments free to the base, slightly

longer and with apices broader, more obtuse and more re-

curved than the outer, with a salmon-pink keel turning green

at apex. Filaments flattened ; the three inner narrower

and lengthening in advance of the three outer ; anthers

included. Ovary 5 mm. long, finely 6-grooved, pale lemon

yellow. (National Herbarium, Pretoria, No. 27,274.) — G. W.

Reynolds.

Plate 980. — Fig. 1, plant life size with one inflorescence removed;

2, bract below inflorescence, x 3; 3, longitudinal section of flower, x 2.

F.P.A., for Apr. 1945 (1946).

98 J

i' ‘

Huth lith.

R, Brown del.

Plate 981.

PELARGONIUM INQUINANS.

Cape Province.

Geraniaceae.

Pelargonium inquinans (L.) Ait. Hort. Kew, 2, 424 (1789); Harv. in

FI. Cap. 1, 299 (1859-60).

What may confidently be regarded as the typical form of

P. inquinans has been recorded frequently in the eastern Cape

Province. It occurs in karoid bush vegetation of the Sundays,

Fish and Keiskama River Valleys and does not extend much

further. The specific epithet inquinans obviously refers to

the scarlet- coloured flowers of this plant. It was in cultiva-

tion in England in 1714 and is one of the original parents of the

scarlet geranium hybrids which have been such a feature in

European gardens for about two centuries. One may ask how

it is that an eastern Cape plant could have been in cultivation

so long. By the close of the seventeenth century many

botanical specimens and seeds had been sent to Holland

through the agency of the two Governors, Simon and W. A.

van der Stel, father and son, who organised special expeditions

with this object in view. Some of the expeditions were

recorded in detail, but relatively little information refers to

the eastern Cape. Certainly one of the earliest expeditions

into this area is the one under Ensign Izaak Schryver, who,

on 4th January, 1689, accompanied by twenty-one Europeans

and using two wagons, set out eastwards, eventually, after

passing through Oudtshoorn, arriving at Aberdeen. This is

referred to in Theal’s History of South Africa 1486-1691. It

cannot be proved that P. inquinans was introduced into

Europe through this early expedition, but the possibility exists.

The first published figure of P. inquinans appears in Dil-

lenius Hortus Elthamensis 1732 and, allowing for the fact

that it is uncoloured, it compares very closely with ours made

from a plant now in cultivation at the National Herbarium,

Pretoria. Linnaeus described the plant under the generic

name Geranium , but owing to the irregular structure of the

flower, it was, with a number of related species, separated from

Geranium under the name Pelargonium. With a history of

about 250 years in cultivation it is not surprising that there

are many references to it in literature, but these need not be

cited here.

P. inquinans was collected by most of the early botanists

who visited the eastern Cape and more recent records have been

made by Marloth, Galpin, Long, Leighton, Dyer and Holland.

While, as so often happens, the typical form of the species

is readily distinguished, there are, both in the veld and in

cultivation, very similar forms with varying shades of pink to

white flowers which are more difficult to classify. Those in

the veld are generally in somewhat more temperate situations

than the typical form, and there is certainly some measure of

isolation in the veld of these so-called colour varieties. Since

P. inquinans has been shown to hybridize so readily in cultiva-

tion, it is clear that a practical systematic classification of

related forms should combine critical field work with cytolo-

gical studies. This aspect in classification was referred to

earlier under P. acraeum R. A. Dyer, a related species appear-

ing on plate 779, in Volume 20.

Description : — A moderately branched, softly woody shrub, 1-2 m.

high. Branches terete, 1-5 cm. towards the base and reduced to 5 mm. on

the ultimate flowering branches, soft when young with a large juicy pith,

becoming hard externally with age, densely and shortly glandular pubescent.

Leaves petiolate ; the petioles up to about 7 cm. long, but reduced to 2 cm.

on flowering twigs of old plants ; the lamina orbicular, deeply cordate,

shallowly 5-7-lobed with the lobes several-toothed or crenate, 4-8 cm. broad,

softly pubescent with gladular and eglandular hairs mixed on both surfaces.

Stipules broadly ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 5-14 mm. long, 5-12 mm. broad,

soon becoming membranous. Peduncles 8-20 cm. long, pubescent with

short glandular hairs and short and long eglandular hairs, 15-30-flowered ;

the bracts subtending the flowers with the outer-whorl united at the base,

similar but narrower in proportion to the stipules, subpersistent. Flowers

pedicellate ; the pedicel 2-3 cm. long with the fused nectariferous calyx spur

extending about 2-5 mm. from the base, glandular-pubescent. Sepals

oblong-lanceolate obtuse or subacute, 8-10 mm. long. Petals scarlet ; the

two upper slightly smaller than the others, obovate-cuneate, sub-

truncate at the apex, 1-1-5 cm. long, 5-7 mm. broad ; the lower three up to

about 1-7 cm. long, and 1 cm. broad. Fertile stamens normally 7. Ovary

densely villous ; fruit about 4—5 cm. long with the beak covered with spread-

ing white or light grey hairs (National Herbarium, Pretoria, No. 27264). —

R. A. Dyer.

Plate 981. — Fig. 1, flowering branch, natural size; 2, pedicel and

calyx, x 2 ; 3, calyx, x 1-5 ; 4, androecium, X 6; 5, ovary, X 6; 6, seed,

natural size ; 7, habit.

F.P.A., July 1946.

962

B. Brown del.

Birth hth.

Plate 982.

ERICA BOWIEANA.

Cape Province.

Ericaceae.

Erica Bowieana Lodd. Bot. Cab. 9, t. 842 (1824) ; Guthrie and Bolus in FI.

Cap. 4, 1, 54 (1905).

Although there are about 500 species of Erica in the Cape

Province, only three have been figured previously in these

pages. On the other hand, many species were illustrated in

botanical works of over a century ago, since, in the early days

of colonisation at the Cape of Good Hope, Erica seed was

collected extensively for cultivation in Europe, where they

were greatly prized. Andrews, for instance, devoted two fine

series of publications entirely to the genus Erica, the first

being his Coloured Engravings of Heaths, 1802 onwards, and

the other The Heathery, the revised edition of which, pub-

lished in 1845, contained 300 illustrations. Later in the

century interest ebbed and the genus Erica to-day, like

Protea, another typically south-western Cape genus, holds no

special place in overseas collections.

Outside their natural habitat of the southern, more par-

ticularly south-western Cape Province, species of Erica are

found somewhat rarely in Africa, although sometimes a species

may be locally common on mountain ranges in Natal and the

Transvaal.

There is at present a modest revival of interest in the

cultivation of Erica in the Union and to this we owe the

opportunity of preparing illustrations of a few more species.

The plants were among the first successes achieved by Mr.

G. W. Reynolds in his wild garden at North cliff, Johannesburg.

Particular care in not disturbing the roots when planting in

the open, the use of large stones or slates to protect the roots

from excessive heat, and liberal winter watering, are three

essential precautions in these parts. Mr. Reynolds regards

E. Bowieana as one of the most handsome species of Erica in

his garden. It grows there, untouched by frost, to a height

of 5-6 ft., with erect woody branches, which produce flowers

all the year round. The racemes, up to 5-6 inches long,

composed of either pink or white flowers, are produced from

near the apex of branches, and as the flowers of a raceme

die, the branch elongates further, producing another raceme

and so the flowering continues. Some authors refer to the

flowers as white fading to rose, but they may be rose when

fresh as in one of the present figures.

In the account in Flora Capensis, 1905, the only locality

records are in the Riversdale district, whereas Mr. Reynolds

extends the distribution to near Uniondale, where he collected

his seed from plants in the veld. The species was first illus-

trated in Loddiges Botanical Cabinet in 1824, and it was

figured several more times before 1846 when a good representa-

tion appeared in Andrews’s Heaths tab. 252, under the name

E. Bauer a, but in the 100 years since then its beauty has

received little attention from the artist.

Description : — Shrublet 1-2 m. high (Reynolds) sparsely branched.

Branches stiffly erect with scattered or sometimes slightly crowded branchlets

along their length and with small fascicles of leaves on the younger portion.

Leaves spreading or slightly recurved from the petiole, 4-nate on the branch-

lets; blade oblong, acute or subulate, sulcate, thick, glabrous, 3-5 mm.

long; petiole 1 mm. long, adpressed to the stem, minutely pubescent.

Inflorescence axillary; flowers crowded below the ends of the branches,

pendulous, 1-4 (usually 2) from the apex of abbreviated shoots in the axils

of fascicles of leaves ; pedicels 4—6 mm. long with three bracts ; two upper-

most bracts opposite and slightly above half way up the pedicel, ovate,

about 2 mm. long, slightly keeled, waxy when fresh. Sepals ovate, about

3-5 cm. long, ovate, waxy when fresh, keeled towards the tip. Corolla

pinky-mauve to white when fresh, tubular, slightly angular towards the base,

1-7-2 cm. long, 5-6 mm. diam. about the middle, contracted slightly to the

oblique mouth, glabrous, slightly waxy when fresh, becoming papery;

lobes broadly rounded, 1 mm. long. Anthers oblong, included, cohering

round the style towards its apex, appearing through the corolla as a dark

shadow towards the mouth ; the thecae separate from the apex almost to

point of attachment of the filament, awned or tailed at the back and acute in

front at the base, 1-75 mm. long, and the awns nearly as long. Ovary shortly

stipitate. (G. W. Reynolds, 3965, 3965A, in National Herbarium, Pretoria,

No. 27247, 27247A.) — R. A. Dyer.

Plate 982. — Fig. 1, branch of Reynolds 3965, natural size; 2, Reynolds

3965A; 3, abbreviated twig with flowers, natural size; 4, longitudinal

section of flower, x 2; 5, stamen, x 4; 6, ovary, x 4 ; 7, leaf, back view,

X 6 ; 8, cross section of leaf, x 20 ; 9, leaf, side view, x 6; 10, habit.

F.P.A., July 1946.

983

E. Smith del.

Huth litb.

Plate 983.

WATSONIA ALETROIDES.

Cape Province.

Ibid ace ae.

Watsonia aletroid.es Ker in Bot. Mag. t. 533 (1801). Ker, Gen. Irid.

128 ; Ait. Hort. Kew, edit. 2, i, 96 ; Klatt in Linnaea 32, 742 ; Baker,

Handb. Irid. 174 ; Baker in FI. Cap. 6, 100 (1896) ; Antholyza alethroides

Burm. Prodr. 1. Gladiolus aletroides Vahl, Symb. 2, 96; Gladiolus Merianus

Thunb. Diss. Glad. No. 12 ; Prodr. 7. Gladiolus tubulosus Jacq. Ig. t. 229 ;

Coll. iv. 153. Watsonia tubulosa Pers. Syn. i. 42. Antholyza tubulosa Andr.

Bot. Rep. t. 174.

This Watsonia may easily be distinguished from all the

other known species in the genus by the tubular form of its

perianth, a shape brought about by the very short perianth-

segments. For in the rest of the genus the segments are usually

widely spreading and constitute the more attractive part of

the flower, leaving the tube somewhat in the background.

A similar perianth is found in species of Veltheimia and in

Lachenalia pendula, which were at one time included in the

genus Aletris and suggested the specific name aletroides, dating

back to 1768, when the spelling alethroides was used. There

is some variation in the shape of the perianth, and there are

gradations which seem to link the tubular form represented

here with W. Muirii Phillips. The colouring also varies from

red to shades of pink, and in the latter there is sometimes a

mottling of darker pink.

Watsonia aletroides is among the more lowly species in

the genus, the height rarely exceeding two feet. Living plants

were introduced into Kew in 1774 by Francis Masson, and the

species was grown in Europe in the latter part of the eighteenth,

and early part of the nineteenth centuries. Figures of it

appeared in several publications of that period, the last being

that in the Botanical Magazine in 1801, when it was placed in

Watsonia.

The plant represented here flowered at Claremont from

corms collected in the Riversdale Division. It occurs in the

Caledon Division, as far west as the mountains near Sir Lowry’s

Pass, and eastwards to the Uniondale Division.

Description : — Plant 44 cm. high. Corm globose, tunics

reticulate, splitting up into copious fine bristles, 2-5 cm. diam.

Basal leaves 4, linear, acuminate, inconspicuously veined,

margin scarcely thickened, 18-22 cm. long, 7-13 mm. broad;

cauhne leaves 3, almost entirely sheathing, 1 -4-2-5 cm. long,

the blade up to 1-5 cm. Inflorescence branched from the two

upper leaves, the terminal spike 10-flowered, flowers 2-ranked,

more or less decurved. Bracts widely clasping the axis,

equalling the internodes or a little longer, broadly ovate,

acuminate, herbaceous near the base, membranous and

strongly veined upwards, 22-10 mm. long; bracteoles united

almost to the apex, as long as the bracts or a little shorter.

Perianth tubular, 4-5-5 cm. long, the tube up to 8 mm. diam.,

the filiform part more than half as long as the cylindrical part ;

segments oval, 7-9 mm. long. Stamens reaching half-way up

the perianth-segments ; staminodes rather conspicuous. Stig-

mas at first reaching almost to the apex of the segments and

with age exserted, up to 2 mm. long. (Bolus Herbarium,

No. 22865; Fourcade 1649.) — L. Bolus.

Plate 983. — Fig. 1, corm (Fourcade, 1649) ; 2, flower, laid open, natural

size.

F.P.A., July 1946.

9 8 A-

E.K. Burges del.

Huth lath.

Plate 984.

HUERNIA ASPERA.

Kenya, Tanganyika.

Asclepiadaceae

Huernia aspera N.E. Br., in Gard. Chron. 1887, 2, 364; FI. Trop. Air.

4, 1, 496 (1903) ; White and Sloane Stapelieae 3, 828 (1937) ; Bally in Joum.

E. Afr. Nat. Hist. Soc. 16, 161 (1942).

The genus Huernia, consisting of about 50 species, is

poorly represented in Tropical Africa by comparison with

the number of species in South Africa. More than 40 species

have been recorded from South Africa, whereas present records

indicate that Kenya and Tanganyika share only two species,

namely, Huernia aspera N.E. Br., which is figured opposite,

and H. keniensis R. E. Fries. The typical forms of these

species are distinguished by P.R.O. Bally in the Journal of

the East African Natural History Society, 1942, where he

states that H. keniensis differs from H. aspera by the shorter

and thicker, and more erect stems, by the larger and deeper

corolla and by the blackish-purple inner corona.

When Brown first described H. aspera in 1887 from

specimens collected by Sir John Kirk, there was no exact

information about it, and even by 1937 White and Sloane

were not able to add any definite distribution records. But by

1942 Bally was able to say that it extends far inland from the

coastal area of Tanganyika and Kenya, occurring in the Bura

area, in the Chyulu Hills, on Emali, and along river valleys on

rocky ground near Nairobi. It was from the last-mentioned

habitat that Maj. A. G. McLaughlin collected the plant

figured here. He mailed it to the Division of Botany and

Plant Pathology, in November 1942, while on Military

Service. It flowered in March 1944, not having altered

appreciably in habit during the intervening period. Bally

notes an appreciable variation in habit according to the par-

ticular conditions of growth. In exceptional circumstances

stems dangling over rock ledges may reach up to 4 ft. long or

more, whereas normally they are only a few inches.

To what extent the shape of the flower of H. aspera varies

is not certain. In the allied species H. keniensis, with a similar

distribution in Kenya, there is considerable variability, with

the result that two varieties have been described. There

seems to be good cause for a more critical investigation into

the relationship between these species and their forms.

Description : — Succulent plant. Stems procumbent and

ascending, 5-20 cm. long, or up to 1 m. in exceptional circum-

stances, 1-1-25 cm. thick, glabrous, obtusely 4-6 angled,

with teeth spreading, 2-3 mm. at 0-75-T25 cm. intervals

along the angels. Cymes sessile towards the base of young

shoots, 3-5-flowered, with the flowers developing in succession.

Pedicels 5-10 mm. long. Calyx divided to the base ; segments

about 7 mm. long, narrowly linear-lanceolate. Corolla reddish-

purple within (sometimes blackish-purple), biscuit-coloured on

the outer surface with purplish marking, up to 2-5 mm. diam.,

densely and softly papillose on the inner surface except at the

tips of the lobes, rough on the outer surface below the middle

with papillae-like asperities and prominently ribbed; tube

campanulate, 1-1-5 cm. diam. across the mouth; lobes 6-7

mm. long, deltoid-acuminate, with small recurved points

between and with a very narrow biscuit- coloured margin.

Outer corona blackish-purple, of 5 short, broad, slightly

emarginate lobes ; inner corona of 5 lanceolate-subulate,

yellowish incumbent-erect lobes slightly exceeding the anthers.

(McLoughlin in National Herbarium, Pretoria, No. 27242). —

R. A. Dyer.

Plate 984. — Fig. 1, plant natural size ; 2, flower natural size; 3, portion

of inner surface of corolla, X 2 ; 4, corona, x 4.

F.P.A., July 1946.

G. Parker del.

Huth lith

Plate 985.

SCILLA MARGINATA.

Transvaal.

Liliaceae.

Scilla (Ledebouria) marginata Bale, in Bull, de l’Herb. Boiss. Ser. 2, 4,

1002 (1904).

The type locality from which Baker’s species was described

is Modderfontein, near Johannesburg, where it was first

collected by Conrath. Our rather more robust form, which

comes from Rooiberg in the Waterberg Mts. is, however,

identical in the shape and texture of the leaves. In establish-

ing species in the Subgenus Ledebouria it is probably more

difficult than in most genera to define characters which will be

useful in a key. When plants are seen growing in their

natural habitat, various characteristics such as stance and

texture of leaves are fairly distinctive, but when these

characters are expressed in words for comparison with other

species, they often lose as much meaning as the plants them-

selves do after they have been dried and preserved in herbaria.

Nevertheless, this species is tolerably well defined by the

acuminate leaves, very slightly undulant and coriaceous at the

margins, in addition to the dull-coloured perianth segments.

A comparison of the leaves of this species with those of

8. cicatricosa Smith from Natal will show a close similarity

in shape, stance, marking and texture ; but S. cicatricosa has

slightly more undulant margins, and the bulb shows the fleshy

bases of old leaves, which are absent in S. marginata.

The plant illustrated flowered in September 1944, under

cultivation in Pietermaritzburg.

Description : — Bulb ovoid, up to 5 cm. in diameter, with

a disc-like butt at the base. Leaves up to 5, spreading, lanceo-

late, up to 15 cm. long and 5 cm. wide at their base, and with

upper surface concave, bright green with darker greenish or

purplish markings, distinctly margined, especially when

mature, with a fine whitish and minutely serrate border.

Inflorescences 1-3 from each bulb, spreading, about 15 cm.

long, of which the raceme is about 7 cm. long ; raceme dense,

and about 3 cm. in diameter. Pedicels up to 1 cm. long,

subtended by small linear dried bracts. Perianth segments

first forming a cup, and then recurved, ligulate, about 5 mm.

long, purplish-green with paler margins. Anthers about as

long as the segments, bright purple, in contrast to the dull

colour of the segments. Ovary stipitate, discoidally widened

at the base, 3-chambered with 2 ovules in each chamber;

stigma rounded but not capitate, (v. d. Merwe 2629, in

National Herbarium, Pretoria, No. 27268). — F. Z. van der

Merwe.

Plate 985. — Fig. 1, entire plant, natural size; 2, flower, enlarged;

3, segment with anther ; 4, ovary and style ; 5, ovary, from above.

F.P.A., July 1946.

986

R. Brown del.

Huth Iith.

Plate 986.

ERICA DISCOLOR.

Cape Province.

Ericaceae.

Erica discolor Andr. Col. Heaths, t. 20 (1802) ; Guthrie and Bolus in FI. Cap.

4, 1, 75 (1905).

On plate 982 Erica Bowieana Lodd. was illustrated from a

plant in the garden of Mr. G. W. Reynolds, Johannesburg.

It was mentioned there that other species of Erica were to

follow from the same source. E. discolor is one of them. It

was raised from seed from the National Botanic Gardens,

Kirstenbosch, having produced robust plants 3-4 ft. in

height, within three years. They had withstood heavy frosts

and had flowered well from April to September and October.

The species is not so floriferous as many others and for this

reason is not outstanding for horticultural purposes.

A cursory comparison of the present illustration with that

appearing in Andrews Coloured Heaths, t. 20 (1803) shows a

slight difference in stance of the flowers, and the corolla tube

is not curved as in our drawing. This gave rise to some

doubt as to whether the two plants were the same species,

but after an examination of herbarium records and in consulta-

tion with the Director of Kirstenbosch, from whom the seed

had originated, it was agreed that our specimen is a recognised

form of E. discolor.

The account of E. discolor by Guthrie and Bolus in Flora

Capensis draws attention to its close relationship to the two

species E. unicolor Wendl. and E. versicolor Wendl., from

which it is distinguished by inconspicuous yet important floral

characters. One gathers from the same source that the

species has a range of distribution from the Caledon to Port

Elizabeth district, thus making it more widespread than many

others of the 500-odd species in the genus.

Description : — Shrub about 1 m. high, branched freely

from the base, and several of the branches reaching approxi-

mately the same height. Branches greyish white pubescent,

pinky-brown at the tips, stiffly erect, with branchlets ternate

in irregular whorls. Leaves 3-nate, with petiole 1-1*5 mm.

long, suberect, lower ones on main branches red, imbricate on

the branchlets, linear, up to 7 mm. long, viscid-puberulous,

obtuse, sulcate. Inflorescence open, flowers 2-3 together at

the ends of branchlets towards the ends of main branches.

Pedicels 2-3 mm. long, puberulous. Bracts approximate,

similar to sepals but somewhat shorter. Sepals red shading

to dark green at the tip, ovate, ovate-lanceolate, 5-6 mm.

long, subacute, sulcate, keeled on the back at the tip, very

minutely puberulous, ciliate. Corolla wine red shading to

lemon yellow on the lobes, tubular; tube slightly curved,

2-2*4 mm. long, 3-4 mm. broad, very slightly widened at the

throat, glabrous, somewhat viscid externally; lobes broadly

rounded, 2 mm. long. Anthers golden brown, included or

reaching the corolla throat, linear or narrowly oblong, about

2*5 mm. long, obliquely truncate at the base, appendiculate,

with the tails about 1*5 mm. long, and with the pores more

than half the length of the anthers. Ovary on a short grooved

stipe. (National Herbarium, Pretoria, No. 27248). — R. A.

Dyer.

Plate 986. — Fig. 1, twig, natural size; 2, leaf, back view, x 4; 3, leaf,

side view, x 4; 4, transverse section of leaf showing flat upper surface

and sulcate lower surface, x 10 ; 5, bracts and sepals, X 2 ; 6, longitudinal

section of flower, x 2; 7, anther, x 4; 8, ovary on short stalk, x 4;

9, habit.

F.P.A., July 1946.

987

Z.K. Buries del.

Huth lith.

Plate 987.

ALOE TORREI.

Portuguese East Africa.

Liliaceae.

Aloe Torrei Verdoorn et Christian sp. nov., in sectione “ Leptoaloe ”

colore et forma flornm affinis est A. inyangensis Christian, sed perianthiis

minoribus distincte stipitatis differt.

Planta succulenta, breviter caulescens. Folia multifaria erecto-patentia,

anguste linearia, basi abrupte dilatata, supra canaliculata, apicem versus

concaviuscula, viridia, basin versus maculis paucis sparsis picta, dorso

rotundata, basin versus copiose albo-maculata, ad margines linea angustata

cartilaginea cincta, dentibus minutis armata. Inflorescentia simplex.

Pedunculus rigidus, bracteis paucis vacuis. Eacemus cylindricus, laxus.

Bracteae florum pedicellos amplectantes. Perianthium flammeum, apice

viride, ventricosum, trigonum, rectum, basi stipitatum ; segmenta exteriora

fere ad basin libera, corallina, apice viridia, 5-nervata, valde canaliculata,

apice subacuta, segmenta interiora libera, 3-nervata; stamina inclusa.

Stylus inclusus ; ovarium pallide viride.

Portuguese East Africa : Gurue Mountains, Quelimane, da Torre No.

27239, in National Herbarium, Pretoria.

The authors have much pleasure in naming this pretty

little Aloe in honour of Dr. Rocha da Torre who, for many

years has been studying the flora of Portuguese East Africa

and has already made a collection of over 7,000 speci-

mens. Amongst the Aloe species sent for naming by Dr. R.

da Torre and Dr. C. B. da Graca, are several that have not

hitherto been recorded from beyond the borders of S. Rhodesia

viz. A. excelsa Berg., A. rhodesiana Rendl., and A. inyangensis

Christian, as well as A. Cameronii Helms and A. Greatheadii

Schonl., which occur in both S. Rhodesia and Nyasaland.

The latter also extends into Bechuanaland and the Transvaal.

In habit the new species is akin to A. Nuttii Bak., which

was figured on Plate 762 of this work, and also to A. mketiensis

Christian, figured on Plate 785. From both of these it differs

in being a much smaller plant with more slender stems and

leaves. Its inflorescence bears no resemblance to those of

either of those species.

The inflorescence and flowers, in colour and shape, show a

close relationship to A. inyangensis Christian, but the racemes

are shorter, larger and fewer flowered and the flowers are

smaller in all respects. Its vegetative characters are

easily distinguished from those of A. inyangensis in which

the stems are larger, usually producing branches, with leaves

distichous, considerably larger and of a darker dull green,

seldom maculate except at the sheathing base.

Dr. R. da Torre collected his plants among rocks on Mt.

Gurue in the Quelimane area, P.E.A. and the plate was

prepared from one of these which flowered in the garden of the

National Herbarium, Pretoria, in March 1944.

Description : — A succulent plant, suekering from the base. Stem about

10 cm. high and 9 mm. diam. covered by the leaf bases. Leaves rosulate,

erect-spreading, linear, about 45 cm. long and 5 mm. broad about the middle,

tapering gradually to the subulate apex which soon withers, broadening

towards the base and then widening abruptly to 1-8 cm. where it clasps the

stem; upper surface green, deeply channelled in the lower half, becoming

concave above with a few irregular, scattered white spots towards the base,

rounded on the back, profusely spotted with white lenticular spots near the

base, some of which spots have a raised tubercle in the centre ; margins with

a narrow cartilaginous border armed with minute white teeth. Peduncle

more or less rigid, pale green, terete, flattened on one side above the base,

2-5 mm. diam. about the middle. Sterile bracts 4, widely spaced, 1-1-5 cm.

long, 6 mm. broad at the base clasping the peduncle, tapering at the apex to

an acute point. Raceme cylindric, lax, few-flowered. Floral bracts triangular-

acute, ca. 13 mm. long, 7 mm. broad, 10 nerved, closely enfolding the

pedicel. Pedicels pink, erect-spreading, those of mature flowers cemuous,

about 2 cm. long. Perianth flame coloured, green at apex, ventricose,

straight, trigonous, 27 mm. long, up to 7 mm. diam. in the middle, tapering to

base and apex ; the base stipitate ; outer segments free almost to the base,

coral-red with green apex bordered by pinkish-white, 5-nerved, apices sub-

acute, straight, inner segments free, pinkish-white with a pink keel, 3-nerved,

apices green, obtuse, straight. Filaments greenish-white, included. Anthers

orange, sub-exerted. Style greenish-white, included. Ovary pale green,

5 mm. long, 2-5 mm. diam.

Plate 987. — Fig. 1, raceme in colour, natural size; 2, basal portion of

leaf, natural size ; 3, apical portion of leaf, natural size ; 4, bract enlarged ;

5, longitudinal section of flower, enlarged; 6, outer perianth-segment,

enlarged; 7, inner perianth-segment, enlarged; 8, stamen, enlarged; 9,

gynoecium with pedicel and base of perianth, enlarged; 10, gynoecium,

enlarged; 11, habit much reduced.

F.P.A., July 1946.

986

Huth Jith

Plate 988.

DRIMIOPSIS WOODII.

Natal.

Lieiaceae.

Drimiopsis Woodii Baker in FI. Cap. 6, 473 (1896).

This rather insignificant plant appears to be fairly widely

distributed in Natal. Its natural habitat is in the shade of

rocks. It is closely related to D. maculata (Plate 957) by its

whitish buds and green flowers, but differs in the elongated

leaves, not lobed at their bases, and not blotched on their

upper surface. In the description of D. maculata, the species

D. minor was sunk, on the grounds that plants vary greatly

in size in consequence of environmental differences. The

variation in size found among flowering specimens of D. Woodii

seems to bear this out.

The specimen figured here was collected on the summit of

the Lebombo mountains south of Ingwavuma, and flowered

in Pietermaritzburg in September 1944. This particular plant

after growing in a tin was rather larger than the average.

Description : — Bulb ovoid, usually 2-3 cm. in diameter,

with a surface of fleshy whitish scales, and a disc-like base.

Leaves shiny green, usually 2, with deeply channelled petiole

about 10 cm. long, widening gradually into an oblong-lanceo-

late blade about 10 cm. long and 3 cm. wide in the middle.

Scape about as long as the leaves, with a short dense raceme

about 3 cm. long, consisting of whitish buds at the apex which

develop into greenish flowers. Pedicel short, about 1 mm.

long with minute fleshy scale-remnant below. Perianth

segments about 2 mm. long, connivent, cucullate, green.

Anthers short, included. Ovary sessile, globose, 3-chambered,

with short style and slightly capitate stigma (van der Merwe

2728, in National Herbarium, Pretoria, No. 27270). — F. Z.

van der Merwe.

Plate 988. — Fig. 1, entire plant, natural size; 2, single flower, enlarged ;

3, dissection of perianth, with stamens ; 4, ovary and style ; 5, transverse

section through ovary ; 6, portion of axis, showing vestigial bracts.

F.P.A., July 1946.

1

R. Brown del.

9 89

Huth h th

Plate 989.

HAWORTHIA PALLIDA VAR. PAYNEI.

Cape Province.

Llliaceae

Haworthia pallida Haw. var. Paynei von Poellnitz in Caet. Journ. 6,

p. 19 (1937); Haworthia Paynei von Poellnitz in Cact. Journ. 5, p. 36

(1936) name only; in Fedde Rep. 41, 206 (1937).

It may seem unwise to publish a species of Haworthia at

the present time, for the genus is under critical study by

several workers. During the past few years a large number of

new species and name-changes have been published and there

are probably more to come. When a monograph appears,

however, all existing names will have to be accounted for,

including the one used above, and so if there is any change it

will then be possible to make the necessary correction.

Mr. G. J. Payne, who sent us the plant figured here, and

after whom the variety was named, writes that it is from the

same place as the one sent to Dr. von Poellnitz of Thuringen,

Germany. In the Cactus Journal in 1936 von Poellnitz

published the name H. Paynei (in error Payneii) in his “ Key

to the genus Haworthia,” and in the Fedde. Rep. 41 (1937),

p. 206, appears a comprehensive description of the species.

Following closely on this publication, in the Cactus Journal of

1937, von Poellnitz gave the plant varietal rank under the

species H. pallida Haw.

According to Mr. Payne the plants are found at McGregor in

the Robertson district, growing in fairly large clumps, mostly

under small bushes or shrubs, very seldom in the open or among

stones. He adds that they are quite plentiful, and that the

only other species of Haworthia growing in association is

H. margaritifera. The last-mentioned species is very different

from our species, falling in a remote section of the genus,

having opaque pointed leaves with rows of conspicuous white

or whitish, but not translucent, tubercles and no translucent

teeth or awns.

Nine species of Haworihia have been figured in this work,

as may be seen in the complete index in Volume 24. Of these

H. arachnoides is the only one that approaches the plant figured

here, having translucent areas in the leaves and with trans-

lucent teeth and awns. Our plant differs from it principally in

the flowers which are larger and have the lobes more evenly

spreading; that is, not so distinctly bilabiate. The plants

sent to the National Herbarium, Pretoria, by Mr. Payne were

grown in the gardens and were figured when they flowered in

September 1944.

Description : — An acaulescent plant with leaves in a

basal rosette, which is about 3 to 6 cm. in diameter. Leaves

2-5-3 cm. long, 6-5 mm. broad, up to 5 mm. thick; upper

surface slightly convex and in some leaves pronouncedly so

just below the middle, very minutely papillate, occasionally

with one or two translucent teeth near the apex ; lower surface

strongly convex, lineate with dark green, minutely papillate

and with raised translucent tubercles in the upper half where

it also bears translucent teeth along the keel (sometimes

2 keels) which is not raised; margins bearing translucent

deltoid-cuspidate teeth, about 1 mm. long; apex tipped with

a translucent awn up to about 2 mm. long. Inflorescence

about 10 cm. tall, peduncle bracteate; sterile bracts mem-

branous, ovate, abruptly long acuminate, about 7 mm. long,

erect, keeled, cloaking the peduncle at the base. Raceme

about 6 cm. long, laxly more or less 20-flowered. Floral bracts

membranous, ovate-acuminate, keeled, clasping the pedicel,

about 6 mm. long (longer than the pedicels). Pedicels erect,

about 3 mm. long. Perianth white with brownish-green keels

to the segments, 1-8 cm. long; segments free to the base but

cohering in the lower half into a curved tube ; the upper half

with the lobes free, more or less evenly disposed, but the 3 upper

recurving and the 3 lower spreading, giving a somewhat

2-lipped appearance (National Herbarium, Pretoria, No.

27254). — I. C. Verdoorn.

Plate 989. — Fig. 1, whole plant in colour, natural size ; 2, leaf in colour,

upper surface, x 2; 3, ditto, lower surface, X 2; 4, longitudinal section of

flower, x 4 ; 5, gynoecium, X 10.

F.P.A., July 1946.

990

Plate 990.

ERICA PARVIFLORA.

Cape Province.

Ericaceae.

Erica parviflora L. Sp. PI. ed. 2, 506 (1762) ; Guthrie and Bolus in FI. Cap.

4, 1, 125 (1905).

This is the third species of Erica cultivated by Mr. G. W.

Reynolds to be illustrated in the pages of this volume. The

other two are E. Bowieana Lodd. and E. discolor Andr.

(t. 982, t. 986). In the case of E. parviflora, seedlings were

transplanted from their natural habitat, which procedure

does not usually meet with success. It was a chance find

while Mr. Reynolds was photographing the unique Aloe

plicatilis Mill. A clump of soil, with several seedlings about

£ in. high, was collected in 1940 near the top of French Hoek

Mountains above the Forest Reserve and transported to

Johannesburg. Some of these seedlings perished, but others

have flourished, forming bushes about a foot in height and in

diameter and flowering almost throughout the year.

One has remarked elsewhere on the variability of the other

two species of Erica described here, but E. parviflora presents

an even greater range of form than either of the others. No less

than five varieties are distinguished by Guthrie and Bolus in

Flora Capensis (1905). It is difficult to decide whether the

present form should be regarded as typical, or whether it

should be regarded as one of these varieties. A further

variety, glabra, has recently been recognised by Compton in

the Journal of South African Botany, July 1943.

In distribution E. parviflora extends commonly on the

mountains from the Cape Peninsula to Swellendam and

Worcester. With this distribution it was natural that it

should have been one of the species early introduced into

cultivation in Europe, being described by Linnaeus (1762)

and illustrated in colour in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine,

t. 480 (1800), and by Andrews both in his Coloured Engravings

of Heaths, t. 124 (1805), and in his Heathery, t. 39 (1845) ; the

first mentioned of the three comparing closest to our drawing.

Although the individual flowers of E. parviflora are among

the smallest in the genus, by their profuseness they give an

impressive and attractive show of colour.

Description : — Shrublet 30 cm., occasionally up to 60 cm.

high. Branches spreading-erect, slender, 30 cm. or more long

with short lateral branchlets; the branchlets bearing dense

clusters of flowers. Leaves 4-nate, spreading, linear, sulcate,

sparsely hairy in figured specimen, about 4 mm. long. Flowers

3-nate and densely clustered towards tips of branchlets.

Pedicels 1-3 mm. long; bracts less than half way up pedicel,

small, membranous, and with a few hairs. Sepals subfolia-

ceous, coloured, lanceolate, 1 mm. long. Corolla pink, con-

tracted to the mouth, urceolate, about 3 mm. long with the

lobes less than 0-5 mm. long, rounded and slightly spreading,

finely puberulous. Anthers included, dorsifixed near the base,

shortly and broadly oblong, obtuse, aristate, 0-5 mm. long;

the pore slightly less than half its length; awns linear, from

§ the length of the cell to about equal to it, rough-edged.

Style included to sub-exserted ; stigma capitate ; ovary sessile

with hairs on the apical area. — R. A. Dyer.

Plate 990. — Fig. 1, flowering branch, natural size; 2, lateral flowering

branchlet, X 4 ; 3, leaf, back view, X 10; 4, transverse section of leaf

showing hairy cavity formed by incurved margins on lower surface, X 20;

5, flower on bracteate pedicel, x 10 ; 6, longitudinal section of flower, x 10 ;

7, stamen, x 10; 8, gynoecium, x 10 ; 9, habit.

F.P.A., July 1946.

R. Brown del.

Huth lith.

Plate 991.

ALOE MOROGOROENSIS.

Tanganyika Territory.

Liliaceae.

Aloe morogoroensis Christian in Journ. S.Afr. Bot. Oct. 1940.

The Aloe figured is one of a large number of tropical

species of Aloe sent for naming, in 1936, to the writer at

Ewanrigg, near Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia, by the late

B. D. Burtt. It flowered for the first time in June-July 1937,

and again in 1938, when it was described. The description

was published in the Journal of South African Botany, October

1940 ( Christian No. 811). The plate was made when duplicate

material of the type flowered in June 1945 at the National

Herbarium, Pretoria. Burtt collected it at Morogoro, Tangan-

yika Territory, in July 1935 (Burtt 5178), and again in the

Morogoro District on Mkumbe Hill (Burtt 5172). It was also

recorded by him on the Uluguru Mts., the Usambara Mts., on

Mt. Luemba near Kilosa, and the Inselberg, Masai Steppe.

In size and habit of plant and inflorescence it is very

much akin to A. Milne- Redheadii Christian, from Angola,

which was published in the same number of the Journal of

South African Botany. The latter species, however, differs

in the colour of the leaves, which are a pale milky-green,

not at all glossy, and very maculate on both faces ; the shape

of the perianth differs considerably, being much more like

that of A. Chabaudii Schonl. ; another difference is that it

does not sucker so profusely and form dense clumps as does

A. morogoroensis.

The habit of the inflorescence, either simple or with 1-2

ascending lateral branches, is a feature of 5 or 6 of the tropical

Aloes, and the shape of the perianth — cylindric, straight,

slightly constricted towards the middle on the underside only,

then again widened — is typical of many of the tropical species.

The leaves are a bright glossy green, more or less changing

to copper colour in the dry season, and it has the advantage

of being, as far as we know, entirely resistant to that scourge of

Aloe gardens, the Aloe Rust.

Although it is one of the smaller species of Aloe, it suckers

so freely and forms such big clumps that it makes a fine show

when in flower in June-July, and is very well worth cultivating

in any Aloe garden.

Description : — An acaulescent plant, densely soboliferous.

Leaves up to 20 in a rosette, arcuate-ascending, lanceolate,

acuminate, acute, up to 30 cm. long, 5-6 cm. broad, and 1 cm.

thick, bright glossy green changing to copper colour in the dry

season, immaculate, sap yellow ; upper surface concave

becoming channelled towards the apex ; lower surface convex ;

margins armed with flat white deltoid teeth, 4-5 mm. long and

about 12 mm. apart in the middle, more distant above, inter-

spaces straight. Inflorescence erect, simple, or with 1-2

lateral branches, one or two to a rosette produced in succession,

50 cm. high. Peduncle pale-brown, branched from about or

below the middle, laterally compressed, especially towards the

base, 8-10 mm. broad and 5-6 mm. thick. Bract subtending

lower branch, deltoid-acute, scarious, many-nerved. Branches

slender, 4 mm. diam., 15 cm. long — often longer — ascending

or arcuate-erect. Sterile bracts ovate-acute, 8-10 mm. long,

scarious, many-nerved. Raceme conico-cylindric, sub-dense,

20-25 cm. long, the buds red, tipped with dark green, erect

to erect-spreading, the mature flowers pendulous. Flower

bracts ovate-acute, 6 mm. long, scarious, many-nerved.

Pedicels 8-10 mm. long, those of mature flowers cernuous.

Perianth coral-red, changing to greenish-yellow at apex,

cylindric, straight, up to 35 mm. long, 6 mm. diameter over

ovary, slightly constricted towards the middle on underside

only, again widened to 8 mm., and then contracted towards

the throat, laterally compressed to 7 mm., the base stipitate;

outer segments free for 15 mm. coral-red shading to greenish-

yellow at apices, obscurely many-nerved, apices slightly

spreading ; inner segments free on margin, dorsifixed to tube,

pinkish-white with a broad many-nerved red median line

shading to greenish-yellow at apex and with apices slightly

spreading. Filaments yellow, included. Anthers included.

Style yellow, included. Ovary pale green or pale brown, 6 mm.

long, 3 mm. diam. (Christian 811 in National Herbarium,

Pretoria, No. 27464.) — H. B. Christian.

Plate 991. — Fig. 1, inflorescence; 2, leaf; 3, longitudinal section of

flower; all natural size ; 4, habit.

F.P.A., October 1946.

992

Plate 992.

HAWORTHIA TAUTEAE.

Cape Province.

Liliaceae.

Haworthia Tauteae Archibald sp. nov. ; sect. Tortuosae Haw., affinis

H. tortuosae var. majori Salm-Dyck, foliis et inflorescentia differt.

Caules foliati, 7 cm. alti, 9 cm. diam., erecti, e basi interdum ramosi.

Folia trifaria imbricata et aliquantula spiraliter torta, juniora erecta,

seniora patentia, rigida et apicem versus leviter incurvata, indurata, ovato-

lanceolata, acuminata, 45-60 mm. longa et 15-25 mm. lata, crassiuscula,

atro-viridia, supra plana vel seniora plus minusve concava, apicem versus

concava vel canaliculata, infra convexa, superne utrinque compressa et

breviter carinata, utrinque tuberculis concoloribus crebris asperiuscula,

seniora infra basin versus paulum insolata marginibus acutis levigatis vel

rugosis. Pedunculus gracilis, 40-50 cm. longus, parce ramosus, subtus

nudus; bracteae superne ovato-deltoideae, acutae, membranaceae, 2-5-3

mm. longae, nervis fuscis; 30-40-florus, floribus suberectis breviter pedi-

cellatis subsecundis. Perigonium ca. 15 mm. longum, basi stipito-angusta-

tum, tubo cylindraceo plus minusve 3 mm. lato, pallide glauco; limbi

bilabiati, segmentis posterioribus erectis vel paulo recurvatis albido-roseis

nervis viridibus, anterioribus valde recurvatis, albido-translucidis nervis

pallidis fusco-viridibus, interioribus marginibus induplicatis, exterioribus

apicem versus tortuosis. Stamina 6-7 mm. longa. Ovarium 4 mm. longum,

stylo 2-2-5 mm. longo subcurvato. Capsula 14 mm. longa, 3 mm. lata,

cylindraceo-trigona.

Cape Province : George District ; Taute, in Albany Museum Herbarium,

No. 722.

Mrs. Arthur Taute, after whom this interesting specimen is

named, has for many years been a keen collector of Haworthia

in the George and Oudtshoorn Districts, and has contributed

generously to the Albany Museum Herbarium. Haworthia

Tauteae was first collected by her in October 1943 in the

George District where, as she writes, “ it just grew in the open

amongst stones — a clump.” Material from this clump has

been cultivated at the Herbarium, but is very slow growing,

the small offshoot shown in the figure being approximately

eighteen months old.

This new species is interesting, not only because it fits best

into the monotypic Section Tortuosae, based on Haworthia

tortuosa and its varieties, but also because it most closely

resembles H. tortuosa var. major, a form described by Salm-

Dyck from a plant cultivated in his garden from seed, being

apparently a European hybrid of H. tortuosa and H. tortuosa

var. pseudorigida.

H. Tauteae is distinguished by the size and surface charac-

teristics of the leaves, which are distinctly trifarious, being

only slightly spirally twisted in some specimens. In addition,

useful features in recognising the species are the compound

inflorescence without sterile bracts, the short pedicels and

erect or semi-erect posterior segments of the perianth.

Description : — Plants caulescent, 7 cm. high, about 9 cm.

diam., erect, branching somewhat from the base. Leaves

trifariously imbricate, slightly spirally twisted in some plants,

with the younger leaves erect and the older leaves suberect or

slightly spreading, rigid, 4-5-6 cm. long, 1 -5-2-5 cm. broad,

rather thick, ovate-lanceolate, blackish-green, acuminate,

with a smooth, hardened, reddish-brown apex which may be

slightly incurved in some plants, with the upper surface flat

or in older leaves more or less concave, concave or slightly

grooved at the apex, with the lower surface convex, com-

pressed on both sides towards the apex and shortly keeled,

with both surfaces roughened with small, closely crowded,

concolorous tubercles, and the older leaves with tubercles

somewhat bleached or whitened towards the base of the lower

surface, and margins sharp, smooth or rugose. Peduncles

slender, 40-50 cm. long, sparingly branched, the lower part

without sterile bracts; fertile bracts ovate-deltoid, acute,

membranous with brown veins, 2-5-3 mm. long; pedicels

short, equal in length to bracts; flowers 30^40, subsecund,

suberect. Perianth about 15 mm. long ; receptacle compressed

at base, funnel-shaped; tube more or less 3 mm. broad,

pale grey, posterior segments very closely coherent for about

half length of tube ; limb two-lipped ; posterior part erect or

very slightly recurved, pinkish-white with broad green veins ;

exterior part strongly recurved, translucent-white with pale

brownish-green veins, margins of interior segments folded

together, outer segments more or less flat with twisted apex ;

stamens 6-7 mm. long, inserted within perianth-tube ; ovary

4 mm. long; style 2-2-5 mm. long, slightly curved. Capsule

cylindric, somewhat triangular, 14 mm. long, 3 mm. broad. —

E. E. A. Archibald.

Plate 992. — Fig. 1, la, plant and inflorescence, natural size; 2, flower

side view, x 3 ; flower face view, x 3; 4, flower in longitudinal section, x 3,

F.P.A., October 1946.

993

M.E. Conn ell del-

Huth lith.

Plate 993.

ECHIDNOPSIS REPENS.

Kenya, Tanganyika.

Asclepiad aceae .

Echidnopsis repens Dyer and Verdoorn in Cactus and Succ. Journ.

Amer. 11 : 68 (1939).

This illustration of Echidnopsis repens serves to introduce

a genus not previously represented in these pages. The

genus Echidnopsis derives its name from the Greek word

meaning viper-like. It is, as White and Sloane point out in

their Stapelieae 3: 975 (1937), an appropriate name, since the

stems with their 6-10 spineless, tubercled angles “ take on

sinuous curves that are often realistically snake-like.” The

genus is most nearly related to Caralluma, from which it may

be said to be reasonably distinguished by its characteristic thin,

many-angled tesselate stems, but in floral characters there are

no clear distinctions.

In the Stapelieae (1937), eight species are recognised,

extending from Southern Arabia and Socotra, through

Tropical Africa to South Africa. Echidnopsis repens is not

among these eight species, but was added, together with E.

Sharpei White and Sloane (also from Tanganyika), in 1939.

Since then E. angustiloba Bruce and Bally has been described

from Kenya.

The figured plant is from the original material collected

near Mt. Meru, Tanganyika, by J. Erens while on the Pole

Evans Central and East African Expedition, 1938. He found

it — as so often happens with Stapelieae — growing under the

protection of shrubs. After seven years in cultivation the

characteristic snake-like habit has not altered ; it roots where

it touches ground, and from time to time dies back from the

older portions. Many points of interest and beauty in the

small, darkly-coloured flowers are only revealed by study under

a lens of fifteen or more magnifications.

Plants collected by Mr. MacArthur at Maktuo and Lutema

Hill on the Kenya-Tanganyika border have lately been

identified as E. repens. In 1937 Mr. F. M. Rogers, of Amani,

Tanganyika, sent Messrs. White and Sloane a very similar

plant, which may also turn out to be specifically equal, and if

so it will be an earlier record of discovery.

Description : — A prostrate or semi-prostrate, sparsely

branched succulent. Stems and branches prostrate or forming

low arches and rooting at points of contact with soil, sub-

cylindric, 6-9 mm. thick, 8- or 10-angled, tessellately divided

into tubercles along the angles ; tubercles when young tipped

by minute lanceolate leaves. Flowers arising singly in the

furrows between the angles. Pedicels 2 mm. long. Sepals

ovate, 1 mm. long. Corolla flat-topped in bud and acutely

5-angled, apiculate; open flower about 1 cm. diam., claret-

coloured except for the translucent-tipped lobes, cupular in

the lowest third, expanding above gradually towards the lobes,

glabrous on the outer surface ; inner surface with a few hairs

in the tube surrounding the outer corona and a few long hairs

on and near the margin of the minutely papillate lobes ; lobes

triangular-ovate, 3-3-5 mm. long, margin recurved, especially

at the sinuses forming recurved points, represented in the bud

by the acute angles. Outer corona cupular, equalling in

height the cupular basal portion of the corolla and twice the

height of the staminal column, obscurely 5-angled when

young, but more obviously so with age, furnished with a few

long hairs directed towards the centre, claret coloured except

for the white pockets at the base alternating with the inner

corona lobes, and occasionally with a whitish rim. Inner

corona lobes united with the wall of the outer corona, consisting

of small stout entire horns which project to the base of the

anthers but do not extend over them ; anthers fleshy. Pollinia

resting exposed on the staminal column. Follicles slender,

broadest below the middle, 3 mm. thick, 4-5 cm. or more long.

(Pole Evans and Erens 1020 in National Herbarium, Pretoria,

No. 26,475.) — R. A. Dyer.

Plate 993. — Fig. 1, portion of plant, natural size; 2, bud, x 5; 3 and

3a, flower, x 4-5; 4, face view of staminal column, x 15.

F.P.A.. October 1946.

994

G. J. Lewis del.

Plate 994.

GLADIOLUS NERINEOIDES.

Cape Province.

Iridaoeae.

Gladiolus nerineoides Lewis, sp. nov. ; perianthii tubo stricto,

segmentis aequalibus fere recurvatis, staminibusque in tubo inclusis bene

distinguitur.

Comma globosus, 1-5-2 cm. diam., tunicis e fibris tenuibus, superne per

2-4 cm. productis, compositus. Caulis gracilis, simplex, 35-40 cm. longus.

Vagina basalis obtusa, glabra vel minute pubescens, 2-4 cm. longa. Folium

basale unum, hysteranthum, 5 menses post flores bene evolutum, lineare,

spiraliter tortum, parce pilosum, 35-40 cm. longum, 5-6 mm. latum; folia

caulina 3, vaginantia, obtusa vel acuta, 2-7 cm. longa, infimum minute

pilosum. Spica compacta, 4-7-flora. Bractea kerbacea, obtusa vel acuta,

1 -5-1*9 cm. longa; bracteolae bracteis similes. Perianthii tubus 3 cm.

longus, erectus, strictus vel leviter curvatus, apicem versus gradatim ad

4-6 mm. diam. dilatatus; segmenta aequalia, obtusa vel subacuta, fere

recurvata, 1-8-2 cm. longa, 7-9 mm. lata. Stamina in tubo perianthii

inserta, antheris segmentorum basin attingentibus 6-7 mm. longis, filamentis

8 mm. longis. Stylus antheras leviter superans, ramis 4-6 mm. longis;

ovarium 3 mm. longum.

Stellenbosch Div. : Somerset Sneeuwkop, Valpy, in S.A. Mus. Herb

54330 and 55012 (type) ; Twin Peaks, Jonkershoek, Borchard, in Jonkers-

hoek Herb. 109, 238 ; $.4. Mus. Herb. 56244 and National Herb. Pretoria.

This attractive Gladiolus belongs to the group in which the

flowers and basal leaves are produced separately, at different

seasons, but is quite distinct from any species previously

described. The distinguishing characters are the more or less

straight perianth-tube, the equal and recurved perianth-seg-

ments, and particularly the short stamens, which are not

exserted beyond the throat of the perianth-tube. The

specific name was suggested by a resemblance in the compact

inflorescence, curved perianth-segments and colour of the

flowers to those of Nerine sarniensis. It is not possible to

reproduce the true colour of these flowers, which vary from

pale salmon-pink tinged with yellow to a rich orange-crimson

overlaid with a bloom of fine gold dust.

Flowering in late summer, at an altitude between 2000 and

4000 feet on the Hottentot Holland and neighbouring Jonkers-

hoek Mountains, this species has escaped the attention it

deserves. It was first recorded in 1920 and again in 1924,

when specimens were sent to the Cape Town Wild Flower

Shows, but the material was poor and incomplete and its

origin unrecorded. The plant figured here was collected by

Mr. J. W. Valpy on the Somerset Sneeuwkop, in February

1940. Owing to the absence of basal leaves it was not possible

to complete the description, but in February 1944 Dr. C. L.

Wicht obtained a plentiful supply of fresh material, collected

by Mr. E. J. Borchard, from the Jonkershoek Mountains, and

the corms were grown at the Bolus Herbarium, where the fully-

developed leaf was described in July of the same year. In

February 1945 Dr. Wicht sent a further supply of living plants

to the South African Museum Herbarium, and thanks are

due to him for the trouble he has taken to provide such ample

material for description and distribution.

Description : — Corm globose, 1-5-2 cm. in diam., tunics fairly numerous,

of very fine parallel fibres extending up in a neck 2-4 cm. long. Stem slender,

unbranched, 35-40 cm. high. Basal sheath obtuse, colourless, 2-4 cm.

long, glabrous or minutely pubescent. Basal leaf 1, hysteranthous, fully

developed five months after the flowers, linear, sparsely pilose, 35—40 cm.

long, 5-6 mm. broad, with the mid-rib and two other veins slightly raised,

and the base enclosed in a brown or colourless obtuse sheath about 5 cm.

long ; cauline leaves 3, herbaceous, obtuse or acute, 2-9 cm. long, the lowest

minutely pubescent. Spike compact, 4-7-flowered. Bract herbaceous,

obtuse or acute, 1-5-1 -9 cm. long; bracteoles entirely fused, like the bract.

Flowers erect, varying in colour from pale salmon-pink to deep golden-red.

Perianth-tube straight or slightly curved, 3 cm. long, expanding gradually

from 1-5-2 mm. diam. at the base to 4-6 mm. diam. at the throat ; perianth-

segments equal, oblong, obtuse or subacute, 1-8-2 cm. long, 7-9 mm. broad,

all recurved or the uppermost sometimes semi-erect. Stamens inserted in the

perianth-tube ; filaments 8 mm. long ; anthers 6-7 mm. long, reaching to the

base of the perianth-segments. Style reaching shortly above the stamens,

the branches 4-6 mm. long, slightly expanded and ciliate at the apex.

Ovary 3 mm. long. Seeds winged. — G. J. Lewis.

Plate 994. — Fig. 1, flowering plant; 2, bract; 3, bracteole; 4, front

view of flower; 5, side view of flower; 6, longitudinal section of flower,

all natural size; 7, stamen x 2; 8, upper part of style and style branches

X 3.

F.P.A., October 1946.

99.5

'

-

Plate 995.

STRELITZIA ALBA.

Cape Province.

Strelitziaceae.

Strelitzia alba (L.f.) Skeels * in U.S. Dept. Agric. Bureau Plant. Ind.

Bull. No. 248 (1911); S. augusta Wright in FI. Cap. 5, 3:318 (1913) in

part, excluding records from Natal.

It is necessary to point out at the outset that the coloured

illustration of the inflorescence has been reduced to 1 /3 natural

size to fit into a single page. This inevitably prevents full

justice being done to it. It must also be emphasised that the

universally used name Strelitzia augusta is not, according to

International Rules of Nomenclature, correctly applied to any

species of “ wild banana,” but is a

synonym of S. alba. This species, S.

alba, which is figured here, has a limited

distribution in the Cape Province.

It is hoped to show later that there

are at least three, possibly four,

arborescent species of Strelitzia in

Africa, all referred to in the past as

S. augusta. The main confusion, how-

ever, has been between the “ wild

banana ” common along the Natal

coast, and the first discovered arbores-

cent form in the Cape Province, in the Knysna-Humansdorp

districts. When Skeels corrected the name of the Knysna-

Humansdorp species to Strelitzia alba from S. augusta, he un-

fortunately followed the widespread misconception of identity

by attributing to it a distribution from “ Durban to the Cape of

Good Hope.” The correct name for the Natal species, which

extends to East London in the Cape, appears from available

literature to be S. Nicolai Regel and Koern., as presented in

* Regarding S. gigantea Kerner, see note at foot of text for t. 996.

Habit.

the following Plate. There is a distinct species in the Trans-

vaal and possibly another in Mosambique and Rhodesia.

In vegetative characters the species are extremely alike,

which fact has been largely responsible for the general con-

fusion. Besides the difference in colour of the petals of S.

alba (white) and of S. Nicolai (blue, rarely white), the two

lower ones of S. alba have small rounded auricles, whereas those

of S. Nicolai together form a sagittate blade. In addition,

the inflorescence of S. Nicolai is compound. These features

of S. Nicolai are characteristic of the Natal plants. The

distinctions are well portrayed in the figures in Curtis’s

Botanical Magazine: S. alba , tt. 4167-8 (1845); S. Nicolai,

t. 7038 (1889); and among others seen, S. alba, tt. 173-174

(1856) (Copy of Bot. Mag. 4167-8) and S. Nicolai, t. 1356

(1858), both in FI. des Serres.

The material figured and described here was collected,

not without difficulty, by forest officer J. H. Keet in November

1943, on the steep, wooded slopes and cliffs of the Groot River

Valley east of Knysna. During the course of this study

assistance has been received in the field also from Dr. H. G.

Fourcade and Mr. F. S. Laughton, District Forest Officer,

Knysna. Until now material of S. alba has been housed only

in the Bolus Herbarium of the local botanical institutions,

and the loan of the specimens was of great assistance in

preparing this account.

In placing this in Strelitziaceae, Hutchinson’s Families of

Flowering Plant, Monocotyledons (1934) has been followed.

Description : — Stems unbranched, up to about 10 m. tall,

8-12 cm. diam. with a tuft of leaves at the apex, producing

young growth from the base. Leaves distichous, petiolate;

blade oblong up to 2 m. long, 45-60 cm. broad, cut into ribbons

by wind. Peduncles from towards the apex of the stems,

15 cm. or more long, compressed, 3 cm. in its greatest diam.

and 1*75 cm. in its smallest diam., spreading-deflexed at the

apex, bracteate; uppermost two bracts about 7 cm. apart;

the upper one up to 30 cm. long, attached about 8 cm. below

the spathe and completely surrounding the peduncle and

produced beyond it, withering from the tip. Spathe deflexed,

dark claret coloured, glaucous, 25-30 cm. long, 6-8 cm. high,

about 4*5 cm. thick, tapering to the slender tip, with muscilage

exuding over the side, many flowered ; each flower subtended

by a claret coloured bract. Perianth exserted on the beak of

the ovary. Sepals white, two upper abaxial ones, not

spreading greatly from the adaxial one, 16-18 cm. long,

3-3*5 cm. at the broadest towards the base, linear-lanceolate,

more or less keeled on the under side, deeply concave or

boat-shaped above; adaxial sepal slightly shorter than the

others, channelled above, strongly keeled in the lower half

with the keel occasionally notched, rarely with a small pro-

jecting tooth or lobe about the middle, 1*5-2 cm. deep and

5*7 cm. wide, somewhat abruptly narrowed towards the tip.

Petals white; upper petal 3*5 cm. long, 1 cm. broad, lance-

olate, cuspidate, the apex withering, concave and slightly

ribbed down the inner face ; the two lower ones about 10 cm.

long with the basal portions forming a narrow boat-shaped

structure, 4-4*5 cm. long, 1-1*25 cm. broad, with margins

inflexed and overlapping only at the base; upper portions

6 cm. long, expanded into a subulate blade, 1*5 cm. broad at

the obtuse base. Filaments about 3 cm. long, straight;

anthers 5-5*5 cm. long, cuspidate at the apex ; styles slightly

shorter than lower petals, about 16 cm. long including the

6 cm. long viscid stigmas which taper to very fine points.

Ovary triangular with a solid neck about 5 cm. long. Fruit

a hard and bony capsule splitting from apex, triangular, 6

cm. long, 3-3*5 cm. broad across the angles; seed with a tuft

of yellow, turning red hairs. (Keet in National Herbarium,

Pretoria, No. 27,476.) — R. A. Dyer.

Plate 995. — Fig. 1, inflorescence, x 1/3; 2, part of leaf, x 1/3; 3, flower

with sepals removed ; 4, 4a, nearly mature and mature seeds (3^a, natural size) .

F.P.A., October 1946.

I

9 96

Plate 996.

STRELITZIA NICOLAI.

Natal, Cape Province.

Strelitziaceae.

Strelitzia Nicolai Regel and Koern.* in Gartenfl. 1858:265, t. 235;

Wright in FI. Cap. 5, 3 : 318 (1913) ; S. augusta Wright (not of Thunb.) in FI.

Cap. 5, 3 : 318 (1913) in part, as to Natal records.-

This is the Natal Strelitzia or “ wild banana,” universally

but erroneously referred to in botanical literature as S. augusta.

As with the preceding coloured illustration of S. alba, this is

also 1 /3 natural size, which fact must not be lost sight of.

The name S. augusta, which is a synonym of S. alba (L.f.)

Skeels, as explained under the previous plate, is so firmly

entrenched in botanical literature that it

will take some time to remove it from

common usage. Why it is that the Natal

plants have for so long been confused with

the species endemic in the Knysna-

Humansdorp Divisions of the Cape

Province is hard to tell. The mistake,

once made, seems to have been followed

without question in all botanical literature.

The material figured here was collected

by Miss H. M. L. Forbes in July 1943, at

Durban. The species occurs in the coastal

bush from some distance north of Durban,

southwards to the environs of East London in the Cape Province.

From here to the nearest locality in Humansdorp of S. alba, there

is a gap of about 250 miles. Throughout this stretch of country,

no arborescent plants of Strelitzia are found wild, despite the

fact that there are many situations favourable to their natural

* Unfortunately it has not been possible under present conditions to see

Kerner Hort. Semperv. t. 589 (1795-1830) in which Strelitzia gigantea Kerner

is described, as there appears to be no copy of the book in this country.

This name is included in the synonymy of S. augusta in the Flora Capensis,

and may prove to be either S. alba or S. Nicolai. If the same as the latter,

the name S. gigantea would take precedence. — J. H.

growth. Luxuriant plants are to be seen in Grahamstown, for

instance.

A plant, grown in the Imperial Gardens of Emperor Nicolas

at St. Petersburg, was described and figured in 1858, both

in Gartenfl. 7 : t. 235 and FI. des Serres, under the name

Strelitzia Nicolai. But the origin of the plants was unknown.

Similar plants, also of unrecorded origin, were cultivated at

least in Portugal and England. When plants in England were

figured in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, t. 7038, in 1889, it was

“ left to the botanists of South Africa to discover its native

country.” The arborescent species of Strelitzia along the

coast of Natal to East London agree so closely in habit and

floral characters with the figures and descriptions of S. Nicolai

in FI. des Serres and Curtis’s Botanical Magazine that there

seems no room to doubt the specific identity of the two.

In addition to the blue petals, the sagittate blade made by

the adaxial petals, and their incurved upper margins meeting

over the basal pocket, there is the noteworthy feature of a

second spathe arising from within the base of the oldest, and

similarly in this fashion a series of three spathes, and very

occasionally up to five, from one peduncle. Three are shown

in the FI. des Serres figure as in ours, but in the Botanical

Magazine only the cut stalk of the second is shown.

Thus we may infer that the type of S. Nicolai was collected

originally somewhere between Durban and East London.

It is not profitable to speculate further.

The muscilage, which is seen to exude from within the

spathes of Strelitzias, facilitates the emergence of the flowers,

which are very tightly packed.

Description : — Stems in clumps, unbranched above, up

to about 10 m. tall, 10-15 cm. diam., with a tuft of leaves at

the apex, producing suckers from the base. Leaves petiolate ;

petiole up to 2 m. long ; blade oblong or ovate-oblong, up to

about 1*5 m. long and 60 cm. broad, rounded at the base,

rarely cordate, shining green, cut into ribbons by wind.

Peduncles from towards the apex of the stems, 30-^45 or more

cm. long from within the leaf base, spreading horizontally at

the apex, bracteate ; bracts lanceolate, clasping the peduncle

and the uppermost one exceeding it, withering from the tip,

slightly glaucous. Scathe with a second spathe from within

its base and similarly a third, and very rarely up to five in

sequence, spreading-ascending, claret coloured, glaucous,

40-45 cm. long (subsequent ones smaller and so also flowers

within them), 8 cm. high towards the base, 3-5-4 cm. thick,

tapering into a long slender green point, exuding muscilage

(lubricating substance to facilitate the emergence of flowers),

many flowered, with each flower subtended by a bract which

does not emerge from the spathe. Perianths emerging

successively and exserted up to 3 cm. on the beak of the

ovary. Sepals white, sometimes mauve-tinged towards base,

two upper abaxial ones linear-lanceolate, up to 20 cm. long,

3-75 cm. broad near base, more or less keeled below, concave

or channelled above ; adaxial sepal very slightly shorter

than others, boat-shaped, sharply keeled especially towards

the base. Petals light mauve to nearly white ; the two lower

ones 12-13 cm. long, with basal portions forming a boat-

shaped structure 4-4-5 cm. long, 1-5 cm. broad with the

margins inflexed and meeting over the centre, with the upper

portions forming a sagittate blade, 10-11 cm. long (including

basal lobes) about 2-5 cm. broad; the basal lobes being

2-5-3 cm. long and 7-9 mm. broad at base; upper petal

about 1-5 cm. long, 7-5 mm. broad, cuspidate; the cusp

acute up to 5 mm. long, slightly keeled down inner face,

flattish. Filaments about 4 cm. long, slightly coiled ; anthers

8-5 cm. long. Styles about the length of the lower petals,

21-22 cm. long including the 9-10 cm. long tapering viscid

stigmas. Ovary triangular with a solid neck 5-6 cm. long.

Fruit hard and bony, triangular up to 6 cm. long and 2-75 cm.

broad across the angles; seeds up to 1-25 cm. long and 0-6

cm. in diameter with a tuft of orange-coloured hairs. (Forbes

in National Herbarium, Pretoria, No. 27,163.) — R. A. Dyer.

Plate 996. — Fig. 1, inflorescence, x 1/3; 2, portion of leaf, x 1/3;

3, basal portion of perianth showing structure of petals, natural size; 4,

sigmas, natural size.

F.P.A., October 1946.

Plate 997.

STRELITZIA CAUDATA.

Transvaal, Swaziland.

Strelitziaceae .

Strelitzia caudata R. A. Dyer sp. nov., affinis S. albae (L.f.) Skeels, foliis

latioribus, sepalis divergentioribus, sepalis inferioribus carina caudata, petalis

inferioribus medio plus lobatis differt.

Caulis simplex 2 m. vel usque 6 m. altus, 10-15 cm. diam., basi ramosus.

Folia petiolata plus minusve ovata vel oblonga, 1-5-1-75 m. longa, 80-85 cm.

lata. Flores intra spatham plures. Spatha horizontal^, purpurea, glauca,

usque 30 cm. longa, basi 6-6-5 cm. alta, 3-5 cm. crassa, attenuata. Sepala

duo superiora approximata, lineari-lanceolata, 15-20 cm. longa, circiter 3 cm.

lata, concava; inferius late divergens, cymbiforme, attenuatum, carinatum,

carina medio cauda instructa. Petala duo inferiora coherentia sepala paulo

breviora, medio lobata conjuncte plus minusve hastata, basi navicularia,

marginibus undulatis ; superius minimum, ovatum, concavum, 2-5-3-5 cm.

longum, 1-1-25 cm. latum, cuspidatum. Filamenta 3-4 cm. longa ; antherae

lineares, 5-5-9 cm. longae. Ovarium triangulare, superne receptaculum floris

productum. Capsula trigona, 5-7 cm. longa, 2-3 cm. lata.

Transvaal : — Petersburg District : Westphalia, Burtt-Davy 2623 ; De

Hoek Forest Reserve, Grewcock in National Herbarium No. 27,482 (sheet I,

type of fruit). Zoutpansberg District : farm Geluk, about 14 miles east of

Louis Trichardt, Verschuur in National Herbarium, Pretoria, 21,654; 27,162

(type); Pisang Hoek, Galpin, in National Herbarium, Pretoria, No. 27,483.

Swaziland : Between Piggs Peak Mine and Havelock, Codd, habit photo,

in National Herbarium, Pretoria.

This is the third of three consecutive plates devoted to

arborescent species of Strelitzia. As in the other two illustra-

tions, the inflorescence is 1/3 natural size. The three species

have been illustrated together in an effort to eliminate as

speedily as possible the long-standing misconception, that there

is but one arborescent species of Strelitzia in South Africa.

The three species are very much alike in general appear-

ance, and unless particular attention is directed to the

characters of the inflorescence, confusion is almost inevitable.

Of the two other species, S. alba agrees closer with S. caudata

than does S. Nicholai, which incidentally is nearer in distribu-

tion. S. caudata differs from S. Nicholai mainly in the simple

inflorescence, in the shape of the base of the petals and in the

tailed lower sepal ; while from S. alba, in the more pronounced

lobes of the lower (adaxial) petals ; and from both in the more

divergent sepals and petals. A noteworthy feature in S.

caudata — the reason for its specific name — is the slender tail-

like projection from the middle of the keel of the lowest sepal.

When first noticed, it was regarded as unique in the genus, but

an examination of a large number of flowers of S. alba, resulted

in the finding of one with a similar, but smaller, projection.

The first record in the National Herbarium is a flowering

specimen collected by Burtt-Davy in June 1906, at West-

phalia, Petersburg District, while forester Grewcock gave

several records for the same district in 1935. Galpin added

specimens from Pisang Hoek in the Zoutpansberg, also in

1935, and from the same district a year later, I. B. Verschuur

sent records from the farm “ Geluk.” Mr. Verschuur planted

specimens on the farm at the same time, and when these pro-

duced their first flowers in 1943, they were kindly forwarded

to the National Herbarium for description and figuring.

Early Colonists used the name Pisang Hoek due to the

presence there of the true “ wild banana,” Musa Davyae Stapf,

which was figured on Plate 810. Strelitzia caudata favours

open rocky, but moist, situations in and near natural forest

formation, while Musa Davyae is found in mountain stream

beds. The presence of both plants in the Zoutpansberg is

confirmed by Mr. Verschuur.

Description : — Stems unbranched, generally up to about 2 m. tall,

but under favourable conditions may reach 6 m. or more in height, and

10-15 cm. diam., with a tuft of leaves from the apex, and producing suckers

from the base. Leaves petiolate; petiole 1-5-1-75 m. long, narrowed

towards the blade, blade ovate when young, becoming oblong, 1-5-1-75 m.

long and 80-85 cm. broad. Peduncle pink, 30 cm. long or more, spreading

at the apex, bracteate; bracts lanceolate, up to 45 cm. long, 10 cm. broad,

clasping the peduncle, powdery-glaucous. Spathe at right angles to peduncle,

claret coloured, somewhat glaucous, about 30 cm. long, 6-6-5 cm. high

towards the base, 3-5 cm. thick at its broadest, tapering to a fine point,

exuding muscilage from towards the base. Perianth produced on the

beak of the ovary, exserted successively from the spathe. Sepals white,

sometimes mauve-tinged at the base, with the upper pair widely diverging

from the lowest; upper abaxial pair Unear-lanceolate, 15-20 cm. long,

about 3 cm. broad towards the base, shghtly concave on the upper face and

indefinitely keeled on the back ; lower or abaxial sepal about equal in length

to the others, boat-shaped, sharply keeled; the keel extending about its

middle into a slender lobe or tail 1 -5-2-5 cm. long. Petals fight mauve

throughout or only towards the base ; two lower ones about 12-15 cm. long,

with the basal portions forming a boat-shaped depression 2-3 cm. wide with

the margin undulate and crisped ; the apical portions forming a sagittate

blade 8-10 cm. long, 2 cm. broad, with its basal lobes obtuse, 5-6 mm. long

and 7-8 mm. broad ; upper petal ovate, cuspidate, 2-5-3-5 cm. long including

cusp, 1-1-25 cm. broad, slightly keeled down inner face, concave. Fila-

ments 3-4 cm. long, anthers 5-5-9 cm. long. Styles 16-17-5 cm. long, includ-

ing the 3-5-5 cm. long tapering viscid stigmas. Ovary irregularly triangular,

with a solid neck 5-6 cm. long supporting the perianth, gradually reflexing

as the flower matures. Fruit triangular, 5-7 cm. long, 2-3 cm. broad across

the sides. — ft. A. Dyer.

Plate 997. — Figs. 1 and la, inflorescence and basal portion of leaf, x 1/3 ;

2, lowest sepal showing tailed keel, natural size; 3, basal portion of two

lower petals and upper petal, natural size ; 4, upper petal, natural size ; 5,

habit.

F.P.A., October 1946.

/

998

R. Brown del.

Hutli lith.

Plate 998.

BARLERIA OBTUSA.

Transvaal, Natal, Eastern Cape.

Acanthaceae.

Barleria obtusa Nees in Linnaea 15:358 (1841); Clarke in Flora

Capensis, 5, 1 :52 (1901).

In the garden at the National Herbarium, Pretoria, Barleria

obtusa makes a very fine show during the autumn months.

The bushes are very floriferous and are widely scattered in

the rockeries. In these surroundings a great deal of variation

is found in the size of the plants, for some remain small, low

bushes nestling among the rocks, while others send out long

sprawling branches, which scramble up and over the adjacent

rocks and vegetation. The branchlets, growing erect from the

decumbent stems, are crowded with leaves and flowers. The

leaves reflex in a characteristic way and have the margins

upturned so that the surface of the leaf is concave. In the

axils of the leaves, especially at the tops of the branchlets, the

flowers are borne in monopodial cymes. The corolla-lobes,

which are lavender-violet, spread gracefully, exposing two

stiffly exserted stamens and a filiform style. With age the

corolla falls from a neat cut at the base of the tube, carrying

the stamens with it and leaving the thread-like style entirely

exposed. The capsule is at first enclosed by the calyx, and

remains on the plant for quite a time after the corolla has

fallen. As it matures, it is shortly exserted from the persistent

calyx, the exposed parts turning chestnut-brown. Like many

acanthaceous capsules, it opens with a sudden crack when

moistened and scatters the four smooth, flattened seeds.

Children love to put the shiny, clean-looking capsules in their

mouths to experience the shock of the explosion.

In nature Barleria obtusa grows quite commonly, and is

widely spread in the Transvaal, Natal and the eastern Cape

Province. It is usually found on hill slopes. One collector

writes that near Utrecht he came upon a patch of this plant

growing with a white-flowered form “ covering several hundred

square feet of rocky hillside making a spectacular show.”

A white-flowered form has also been recorded from the Foun-

tains Valley near Pretoria. Reports show that in the veld the

plant is usually browsed by stock.

In Vol. 23, Plate 893, Barleria Bremekampii Obermeyer

was figured. It falls into the same section ( Eubarleria ) as

B. obtusa. The section is characterised by having the capsule

narrowing towards the base and apex (not long-beaked) and

usually four-seeded. In the revision of the genus ( Annals of

the Transvaal Museum, Vol. 15, Part 2, 1933) A. A. Obermeyer

gives a key to seven subdivisions of this section, B. Breme-

kampii falling under “ Aculeatae,” having stout spinous bracts

and bracteoles and B. obtusa under “ Innocuae.” The

characters given by the reviser for the stigma in the “ Inno-

cuae,” however, do not cover the stigma of B. obtusa. In it

the stigma is cylindrical, slightly thicker than the style and is

shallowly two-lipped at the crateriform apex. There is no

sign of an abortive second branch, but occasionally the two

lips appear torn or more deeply divided in the dried specimens.

The figure was prepared from a plant in the National

Herbarium gardens, Pretoria.

Description : — Plant usually scrambling, pubescent, very much

branched; branches decumbent or erect, up to 1 m. long or more; branch-

lets opposite, of unequal lengths. Leaves opposite, reflexing, broadly ovate,

varying in size from about 1 cm. long and 8 mm. broad to 3-5 cm. long and

3 mm. broad, pubescent on both surfaces, with translucent hairs of different

lengths and mostly minutely bulbous-based ; apex rounded or very broadly

acuminate, obscurely apiculate ; base rounded ; petiole very short or up to

5 mm. long, flat. Inflorescence of axillary 1 to 4-flowered monopodial cymes,

crowding towards the tops of the branchlets. Bract 4 mm. long, 1 mm. wide,

canaliculate, with apex somewhat reflexed, pubescent with gland-tipped

hairs. Calyx green with reddish-brown nerves; segments 4, erect; the

posticous and anticous more or less alike (the anticous slightly smaller)

narrowly oblong, 1-3 cm. long, 4-5 cm. broad, usually broadest in upper

half, apex obtuse and obscurely apiculate, outer surface pubescent with

patent gland-tipped hairs, appressed pubescent within; lateral segments

linear 1 cm. long, 1-5 mm. broad, in other respects similar to the anticous

and posticous segments. Corolla lavender-violet, shading to white at the

base, about 3 cm. long (corolla circumscissile at the base and falling as a

whole) ; tube white, tinged with lavender above, funnel-shaped, pubescent

without, glabrous within ; segments lavender- violet, spreading, subequal ;

the two upper the smallest, about 1 cm. long, 8 mm. broad. Stamens inserted

about midway or just below the middle of the tube, two long, exserted, two

short, included and one rudimentary; filaments pubescent at the base,

white, becoming pale la vender- violet above; those of the long stamens 1-3

cm. long, slightly kneed or twisted near the base, with anther-cells parallel,

equal, 4 mm. long; those of the short stamens 3 mm. long with anther-

cells usually unequal, up to 1-5 mm. long, rudimentary stamen 2 mm. long,

without anthers. Disc cupular. Ovary slightly compressed, glabrous

except for sparse short pubescence near the top; style filiform, about 1-8

cm. long, white ; stigma lavender, eylindric, slightly thicker than the style,

very shortly two-lipped at the crateriform apex. Capsule green becoming

reddish-brown, smooth, shiny, flattened, slightly narrowed towards the base

and apex, four-seeded. (National Herbarium, Pretoria, No. 27,459.) —

I. C. Verdoorn.

Plate 998. — Fig. 1, twig, natural size; 2, calyx, slightly enlarged;

3, corolla opened out, slightly enlarged ; 4, gynoecium surrounded at base

by base of corolla, x 2-5 ; 5, capsule with persistent calyx ; 6, half of capsule

showing 2 seeds ; 7, vein on under surface of leaf, x 5 ; 8, habit.

F.P.A., October 1946.

999

i

JR R. 0. Bally del.

Huth lith.

Plate 999.

HUERNIA CONCINNA.

Eritrea, Abyssinia, Somaliland.

ASCLEPIAD ACEAE .

Huernia concinna N. E. ''Brown, in FI. Trop. Afr. 4, 1 : 497 (1903) ; in

Bot. Mag. t. 7905 (1903) ; White and Sloane, The Stapelieae 3 : 860 (1937).

Huernia concinna is very closely related to H. macrocarpa

Sprenger, which has a similar but somewhat wider distribution

in north eastern Africa. The interesting story of its early

confusion with that species, and later separation by Brown,

is told by White and Sloane in their Stapelieae, Vol. 3 (1937).

Subsequent to the publication of the Stapelieae, which gives

the distribution of H. concinna, as in Eritrea and Somaliland,

the writer collected it in 1944 in Abyssinia at Carsa, above

Diredowa, 2010 m. alt., on a rocky hilltop where it enjoyed

some protection from Juniper us procera Hochst. and Olea sp.

It has been found to be hardy and free-flowering in cultiva-

tion, which afforded the opportunity of making the illustra-

tion now published. The plant, whose corolla has an ivory-

white ground within and sulphur-yellow tinged on the tips of

the lobes, is a slight colour variation from the typical form,

which has a pale sulphur-yellow ground over the whole of the

inner surface ; the brownish-crimson spotting being the same

in both cases.

In the text to the figure of H. concinna in Curtis’s Botanical

Magazine, t. 7905, attention is drawn to the fact that in 1886

the genus Huernia consisted of eleven species, all South

African. Since then new records have brought the total

number of species in the genus to a few short of fifty, eleven at

least of which are from Tropical Africa. The presence of a

rich, succulent flora in certain parts of Tropical Africa will

probably come as a surprise to many readers both within and

beyond the borders of South Africa.

Description : — Stems light green, scarcely glaucous, tufted,

erect or decumbent, 2-5-5 cm. long, but up to about 14 cm.

in cultivation, about 1 cm. diam. exclusive of teeth, glabrous,

5-angled. Angles furnished with straight, spreading teeth

5-8 mm. long, which are subulate from a stout conical base.

Flowers 1-2 together, produced successively, from towards the

base of the younger branches. Pedicel 5 mm. long, glabrous.

Sepals 8 mm. long, 1-5 mm. broad at the base, gradually

tapered to a fine hair-like apex. Corolla ivory-white within

and pale sulphur-yellow on the tips of the lobes, marked

all over the inner surface with dark brownish-crimson spots

and narrowly margined with dark purple-brown on the lobes,

covered on the inner surface with minute bristle-like papillae ;

tube about 6 mm. deep and up to 1-5 cm. in diam., broadly

campanulate; lobes about 8 mm. long and 9 mm. broad at

base, spreading gradually, deltoid, acuminate. Outer corona

rich velvety purple-brown, very shortly 5-lobed; lobes 0-5

mm. long and up to 1-5 mm. broad, transversely oblong,

emarginate. Inner corona-lobes yellow margined and speckled

with purple-brown, 1 mm. long and slightly less in width at the

base, gradually tapering to the subobtuse apex, connivent

in a cone over the tips of the anthers. (Bally S. 121, in Coryn-

don Museum Herbarium, Nairobi.) — P. R. O. Bally.

Plate 999. — Fig. 1 , branch of plant, natural size ; 2, flower, natural size ;

.3, inner surface of corolla-lobe much enlarged ; 4, staminal column with

coronas, x 14.

F.P.A., October 194fi.

woo

R. Brown del.

Huth lith.

Plate 1000.

CYBISTETES LONGIFOLIA.

Cape Province.

Amaryllidaceae.

Cybistetes longifolia (L.) Milne-Redhead and Schweickerdt in Journ.

Linn. Soc. (Bot.) 52 : 192 (1939).

Since this beautiful plant grows near the Cape of Good

Hope, it is not surprising that it has a long history in South

African Botany. It was illustrated as early as 1635, and its

cultivation does not seem to have presented any particular

difficulty to gardeners in Europe. It has sweetly scented,

delicate to dark pink flowers, about 7 cm. long, with spreading

lobes. If produced to perfection it would give any keen

gardener a great sense of achievement.

Our specimen was forwarded by Dr. E. Markotter in 1939

from the Stellenbosch Flats to the National Herbarium. The

bulb has flowered more than once since then, but not annually.

It was figured on the last occasion of flowering, in January

1945.

There are other similar bulbous plants in the Cape Province

which have been confused with Cybistetes longifolia. The

nomenclature of these plants was the subject of joint research

by Milne-Redhead and Schweickerdt, who published their

findings in the Linnean Society Journal in October 1939.

The complicated position they found can be judged by a

quotation from their work : — “ Before the end of the eighteenth

century, on three independent occasions, the name Amaryllis

longifolia (now Cybistetes longifolia ) had been misapplied by

botanists when naming South African Amaryllids.”

The confusion in nomenclature caused by these misunder-

standings persisted unfortunately until the publication of the

work just cited. Part of the confusion centred round the plant

now known as Ammocharis coranica Herb. A figure of this

plant appeared under Plate 230 (1926) of this work, but the

text erroneously referred to a distinct plant, Buphane disticha.

Ammocharis coranica was figured with the correct text on

Plate 712 (1938), but in this case the old leaves were not shown

with withered tips as they are invariably found in nature.

The close similarity in the leaf-characters of Cybistetes

longifolia and Ammocharis coranica is undoubtedly responsible

for much of the confusion between the two plants. In their

spreading, distichous, biflabellate arrangement, in the dying

back from the tip and the subsequent lengthening again by

further growth from the base, and in general appearance,

they are remarkably alike. While Cybistetes longifolia is

recorded in the Cape Province only from the Cape Peninsula,

Paarl and from Stellenbosch to the Swellendam district,

Ammocharis coranica is not in this area, but in its various

forms is scattered throughout the rest of southern Africa and

in adjacent parts of Tropical Africa. Thus there is no natural

mingling of the two species and no chance of seeing them in

flower side by side in the veld.

Description : — Bulb ovoid up to 18 cm long including

neck, and up to about 11 cm. diam. Leaves distichous, up to

13, strap-shaped, variable in length and width, up to 40 cm.

long and 1-6 cm. broad, glaucous, margin entire or minutely

erose; older leaves dying back from apices. Scape about

16 cm. long, arising at the side of the leaf crown, erect, some-

what compressed. Umbel 6— 24-flowered. Spathe-valves 4 cm.

or more long, about 3 cm. broad, nerved ; bracts filiform, often

widened at the apex. Pedicels at time of flowering 4 cm. or

more long. Perianth bent at a slight angle from the pedicel,

pale to dark pink, glossy when fresh, sweetly scented, about

7 cm. long; tube subcylindric, ribbed, slightly expanded to

the throat, about 1 cm. long ; lobes oblanceolate, about 6 cm.

long and 1 cm. broad, with a small tuft of hairs within the

apices, imbricate below, spreading towards the tips. Stamens

decimate; subequal, inserted at the mouth of the perianth

tube; filaments kneed near the point of insertion. Ovary

6 cm. or more long, angled; ovules 8 or more per loculus;

style filiform, slightly longer than the perianth. (Markotter

in National Herbarium, Pretoria, No. 27,273.) — R. A. Dyer.

Plate 1000. — Fig. 1, plant, natural size; 2, longitudinal section of base

of flower, natural size ; 3 and 3a, leaf margin erose or entire and with many

stomata on surface, considerably enlarged.

F.P.A., October 1946.

INDEX TO VOLUME XXV

PLATE

ALOE MOROGOROENSIS 991

ALOE THOMPSONIAE 980

ALOE TORREI 987

BABIANA HYPOGEA 962

BARLERIA OBTUSA 998

CEROPEGIA RADICANS 970

CISSUS UNGUIFORMIFOLIUS 972

COMBRETUM MICROPHYLLUM 978

CYBISTETES LONGIFOLIA 1000

DISPERIS THORNCROFTII 963

DRIMIOPSIS CRENATA 975

DRIMIOPSIS PURPUREA 976

DRIMIOPSIS WOODII 988

ECHIDNOPSIS REPENS 993

ERICA BOWIEANA 982

ERICA DISCOLOR 986

ERICA PARVIFLORA 990

EULOPHIA CARUNCULIFERA 966

EULOPHIA SCHNELLIAE 965

GLADIOLUS NERINEOIDES 994

HALLERIA LUCIDA 961

HAWORTHIA PALLIDA VAR. PAYNEI 989

HAWORTHIA TAUTEAE 992

HOODIA LUGARDI 977

HUERNIA ASPERA 984

HUERNIA CONCINNA 999

IXIA COCHLEARIS 969

IXIA POLYSTACHYA 968

KALANCHOE CRUNDALLII 967

PELARGONIUM INQUINANS 981

PELARGONIUM SALMONEUM 971

SCILLA CICATRICOSA 964

SCILLA MARGINATA 985

STRELITZIA ALBA 995

STRELITZIA CAUDATA 997

STRELITZIA NICOLAI 996

TULBAGHIA NATALENSIS 979

WATSONIA ALETROIDES 983

WATSONIA PYRAMIDATA 974

WATSONIA SPECTABILIS 973

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