Brachystelma. | ASCLEPIADER (Brown). 847 
long, lanceolate, acute, sparsely scaberulous ; corolla rotate, lobed 
to about 3 of the way down, 4-} in. in diam., fleshy, bright clear 
yellow, without a distinct tube; lobes free, 14-2} lin. long, 
1-1} lin. broad, ovate (triangular in dried flowers), acute, flat, 
glabrous, with minutely ciliolate margins ; outer corona-lobes very 
short, closely contiguous, forming a thick fleshy truncate ring not 
exceeding the staminal column, from which the linear obtuse inner 
corona-lobes ave inflexed upon the backs of the anthers and do not 
exceed them, all yellow ; staminal column ? lin. long ; follicles erect, 
subparallel or slightly diverging, about 1} in. long, } in. thick, 
terete, tapering into a long beak, smooth, glabrous ; seeds about 
} in. long, 1 lin. broad, narrowly ovate or ovate-lanceolate, some- 
what concave on one side, smooth, glabrous, light brown, with an 
ochraceous margin ; odour disagreeable. Schlechter in Journ. Bot. 
1897, 292. Tapeinostelma caffrum, Schlechter in Verhandl. Bot. Ver. 
Brand. xxxv. 54; K. Schwm. in Engl. and Prantl, Pflanzenfam. 
iv. ii. 267. 
Coast Recron: King Williamstown Div. ; abundant on rocky ground on a 
mountain at Perie, 4000-5000 ft., Sim, 315! and cultivated specimen ! 
Described from a living plant which flowered at Kew in July, 1894, 
15. B. pulchellum (Schlechter in Engl. Jahrb. xx. Beibl. 51, 53) ; 
rootstock a small tuber, with 1 or more stems, divided at the base 
into 2 or more prostrate branches 3-9 in. long, which are simple or 
again branching, puberulous with very minute retrorse hairs to 
nearly glabrous ; leaves spreading ; petiole 4-2 lin. long ; blade 13-8 
lin. long, 3-7 lin. broad, mostly lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, acute, 
tapering into the petiole at the base, under cultivation becoming 
broadly ovate or orbicular, acute or obtuse and apiculate, and 
rounded to subcordate at the base, thinly puberulous above or 
glabrous on both sides ; flowers solitary or in pairs at the nodes, or 
occasionally in shortly pedunculate 2-flowered umbels ; pedicels 1}- 
34 lin. long, thinly puberulous ; sepals 1 lin. long, lanceolate, 
acuminate, recurved at the tips, nearly glabrous ; corolla rotate, 
about 34 lin. in diam. when fresh, quite glabrous and not ciliate, 
dark purple-brown, with transverse dull yellowish lines on the basal 
part of the lobes, usually invisible on dried specimens ; united part 
nearly flat ; lobes free, 14-1} lin. long, j lin. broad, ovate, acute ; 
outer corona of 5 small pouches alternating with and below the 
anthers, dark purple-brown ; inner corona-lobes } lin. long, linear, — 
closely incumbent upon the backs of the anthers and not exceeding 
them, dark purple-brown ; staminal column } lin. long. Schlechter 
in Journ. Bot. 1897, 293.  Micraster pulchellus, Harv. Gen. South 
Afr. Pl. ed. 2, 242. 
Eastern Recron: Natal; on stony ground, near Bothas Hill, 2200 ft., Wood, 
4536! fissures of rocks near Krantz Kloof, Schlechter, 3178 (ex Schlechter), and 
without precise locality, MceKen, 2! Sanderson, 342! and cultivated specimen ! 
