te 
Tan, 6694, 
GERRARDANTHUS tomenrtosus. 
Native of Natal. 
Nat. Ord. Cucursitackm.—Tribe ZANONIER. 
Genus GzRRarpantuvs, Harv.; (Cogniaux in A. DC. Monogr. Phan. 
vol. iil. p. 935.) 
GERRARDANTHUS fomentosus; ramulis foliisque novellis subtus et petiolis dense 
tomentosis denum glabratis v. pubescentibus, foliis ambitu reniformibus sinu 
basilari profundo 5-7-lobis, lobis brevibus triangularibus acutis, fl. ¢ petalis 
ovato-oblongis obtusis marginibus late reflexis, connectivo in calcar elongatum 
producto, fl. 2 ovario tubuloso-campanulato 10-costato, staminodiis setiformibus, 
stylo brevissimo conico, stigmatibus sessilibus reniformibus, fructu campanulato 
10-costato ore trilobo. 
The singular plant here figured belongs toa very little 
known genus of tropical and southern subtropical African 
plants, of which the first described species was named after 
its discoverer, Gerrard, a collector in N atal, who perished 
in Madagascar. G. tomentosus differs a good deal from 
the generic character, but hardly sufficiently to form anew 
genus for its reception. Of the three described species in 
Cogniaux’s monograph quoted above, none have the spurred 
anthers of this, and in the only one of them of which the 
female flower is known, this has three distinct styles and 
no staminodes. The ovules, too, which in the previously 
known Species are pendulous from parietal placentas, in 
this are suspended from the top of the cells of the ovary; 
the seeds are, however, quite characteristic of Gerrard- 
anthus, 
One of the most curious features of this genus is the 
enormous size of its tuberous roots. Mr. Wood, now 
superintendent of the Natal Botanical Gardens, and who 
Sent seeds of this plant to Kew with copious herbarium 
Specimens, informs me that he first found it in 1874, in one 
stony ravine only (in Inanda), where the tubers were 
seated on the top of and between large stones. Of these 
tubers one measured six feet in circumference, and was 
JUNE lst, 1883. 
