Tas. 8455. 
CHIRONIA taxa. 
— 
South Africa. 
GENTIANACEAE. Tribe CHIRONIEAE. 
Cutronta, Linn.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant, vol. ii. p- 805. 
Chironia laxa, Gilg in Engl. Bot. Jahrb. vol. xxvi. p. 105; Prain in Dyer, 
Fil. Cap. vol. iv. pars 1, p. 1112; species C. serpyllifoliae, Lehm., quam 
maxime aftinis sed foliis majoribus pro latitudine duplo longioribus apte 
distinguenda. 
Herba ubique glabra, caulibus minopere angulatis, foliatis, laxe ramosis, 3-5 dm. 
'  longis, ramis patulis vel adscendentibus. Folia sessilia, opposita, mem- 
branacea, lanceolata, apice acuminata, basi rotundata, margine integra, 
obscure 3-nervia, 2-2°5 em. longa, 2-3 mm. lata, viridia. Flores saepissime 
2-3, nonnunquam singuli, ramulos terminantes et in axillis summis 
unilateraliter dispositi; pedunculi rigidiuseuli, 1-2-3 cm. longi. Calyx 
anguste campanulatus, 5-partitus, 6 mm. longus; lobi lineari-subulati, 
tubo paullo longiores. Corolla purpureo-punicea, tubo anguste cylindrico 
calyce dimidio longiore, limbo angustato, lobis ovato-lanceolatis sub- 
acuminatis 10-12 mm. longis 4-5 mm. latis. Stamina exserta; antherae 
rectae, luteae. Ovariwm anguste oblongum, acutum, 6 mm. longum, stylo 
gracili ovario longiore minopere declinato, stigmate 2-lobo.—0. melampyri- 
folia, E. Mey. Comm. p. 177, non Lamk, C. Schlechteri, Schoch in Bull. Herb, 
Boiss, sér. 2, vol. ii. p. 1110, et in Bot. Centralbl. Beih. xiv. 214,—D, Pray, 
The genus Chironia includes about thirty-four species, of 
which twenty-five are natives of South ‘Africa. Though 
nearly one-half of these have been from time to time intro- 
duced to European greenhouses, only two are generally 
met with in cultivation; these are C. linoides, Linn., 
figured at t. 511 of this work, which has been continuously 
in cultivation since the later years of the seventeenth 
century, and C. floribunda, Paxt., which has been generally 
grown since the middle of the nineteenth century. The 
disappearance of those which have not persisted has not 
been due to any serious difficulty connected with their 
cultivation, but has been. owing to the fact that man 
appear to be monocarpic and that none of them readily 
ripen their seeds in this country. he species which 
flower more than once and can be propagated vegeta- 
tively are, therefore, the only ones that can be relied 
upon to continue in collections. The species now figured is 
a native of the Eastern region of the Cape Colony ; its seeds 
SerremBer, 1912, } 
