Tab. 7841. 

 PLECTRANTHUS saccatus. 



Native of Natal. 



Nat. Ord. Labeat.e. — Tribe Ocimoide^. 

 Genus Plectra ntiius, Viler.; {Benih. ^- IlooJc.f. Gen. Plant, vol. ii. p. 1175.) 



PLECTKiNTuiJs (Germanea) saccatus; caule suffraticoso, ramis patulis pedall- 

 bas herbaceis tetragonis foliipque crassiuscalis patentim pilosis, foliis 

 2-3 poll, loiigis late ovatis rhomboideisve grosse crenati-* otrinque pilosis 

 basi ciineatis v. truncatis floralibus minutis, racemis laxifloria simplicibus, 

 verticillastris 2-4-flons, pedicellis ^-J poll, longis fusco-rubris, calycibus 

 minutis late campanulatis hirtellis, dentibus acutis, supremo ovato 

 lateralibus snbulatis inferioribus ovatis acutis, corolla azureao tubo f 

 poll, longo inflato compresso basi gibboso intus ciliato, ore angnsto, labio 

 superiore maxiino erecto semicirculari apice emarginato basi subhasfcatim 

 truncate lobis lateralibus brevibus rotundatis, labio inferiore parvo 

 oblongo obtuso concavo deflexo, filamentis liberis, antherarum loculia 

 ovoideis divaricatis. 



P. saccatus, Benth. in E. Key. Comment, p, 227; in DG. Prodr. vol. xii. p. 62. 

 Wood, Cat. Plant. Natal. Bot. Card. (1890) p. 69 : Prelim. Cat. India. 

 Natal PI. (1894) p. 28. 



Plectronihus saccatus is much the largest-flowered species 

 of the genus known to me, which character and the lovely 

 azure blue of the corolla render it a very ornamental 

 plant. Mr. Lynch, to whom I am indebted for the 

 specimen figured ^ describes it as remarkable for the 

 horizo]itally spreading branches, about a foot long, the 

 succulent stem and leaves, and for the manner in which 

 the leaf-blades are brought into the best position for the 

 incidence of light by the action of the petioles. It is a native 

 of Katal, where it was discovered by the Collector Drege in 

 1836, at Omsamwubo or St. John's River, a place I do not 

 find in any map. There is a single specimen of it, numbered 

 4777 of Drege's Catalogue, in the Kew Herbarium, but 

 none from any subsequent collector. A hving plant of it 

 was received at the Botanical Gardens of the University 

 of Cambridge, from Mr. J. Medley Wood, A.L.S., Curator of 

 the Natal Botanical Gardens, in 1899, which flowered m 

 October, 1901. According to Wood's Catalogue of the 

 Indigenous Plants of Natal, it affects elevations of from 

 June 1st, 1902. 



