Stapelia.} ASCLEPIADE (Brown), 979 
[53. 8. bella (A. Berger in Gard. Chron. 1902, xxxi. 137-138, 
fig. 40-41); stems erect, branching at or above the base, 5-7 in. 
high, 3-2 in. square, with concave sides and slightly compressed 
angles, having small spreading acute teeth 2-¢ lin. long, with a 
minute tooth (rudimentary stipule) on each side, covered with 
stems ; pedicels 1—3 in, long, 1 lin. thick ; sepals 2-2? lin. long, 
expanded and the lobes extended 1}-2 in. in diam., glabrous on 
both sides, with the inner face deep purplish-red, browner towards 
the tips of the lobes, paler at the centre and the small tube whitish, 
without markings, ciliate on the lobes with long flattened tapering 
purple hairs mingled with a few clavate, vibratile, easily detached ; 
tube represented by a pentagonal depression or cavity about 1 lin. 
deep and 2 lin. in diam., from which the corona is exserted, with 
some short hairs within ; disk slightly convex, nearly smooth ; lobes 
recurved or revolute, flattish, 7-8 lin. long, 6-7 lin. broad, ovate, 
acute, slightly rugose on the inner face 3 outer corona-lobes 12 lin. 
long, 3-1 lin. broad, oblong, with or without a tooth or angle on 
each side, thence narrowed to an obtuse or obscurely 3-toothed 
apex, slightly concave down the face, glabrous, blackish-brown ; 
inner corona-lobes dull brownish-purple, with the dorsal wing free 
to the base, spreading, scarcely 1 lin. long, deltoid, obtuse or 
acute ; inner horn 2-21 lin, long, filiform, connivent with the others 
at the base, then arching-recurved over the outer horn. _N. E. Br. 
in Gard. Chron. 1908, xliv. 169 & 168, fig. 66-67. 
ORIGIN : a hybrid, raised in Europe, cultivated specimen ! ; 
Described from a living plant cultivated at La Mortola by the late Sir Thomas 
Hanbury, who received it under the name of S. glauca, Jacq. I believe it to 
have been raised from seed of that species, which had been cross-fertilised by 
insects, possibly with pollen of S. deflexa, Jacq.] 
