126 SOUTH AFRICAN FLOWERING PLANTS, 



honey secreted within the tube of cohering filaments. 

 (V.) is a diagram showing the relative position of all 

 the parts of the flower. (VI. and Fig. 47) is the pod 

 or fruit, a legume, characteristic of the family. 



Podaly'ria. — A genus of silky leaved shrubby plants 

 with simple leaves and small deciduous stipules. The 

 peduncles are few-flowered. The flowers are purplish. 

 There are nearly twenty species in the west and south- 

 west. 



The calyx is bell-shaped with a five-pointed limb, 

 showing the five sepals. 



The stamens are ten in number, and all quite 

 free in this flower ; but in by far the greater number of 

 this group they are united, and in three different ways. 

 The commonest is to have nine coherent by their fila- 

 ments, or diadelphous, meaning " two brotherhoods," 

 the uppermost filament only being separate (Fig. 46, 

 IV.), as in the garden-pea. Another method is to have 

 all the stamens coherent, but the tube split down, 

 above. The third method is for the tube not to be split 

 at all. 



Crotala'ria. — This is a large South African genus 

 having some twenty-four species. The calyx is some- 

 what two-lipped, the upper having two points and the 

 lower three, making the five sepals. The corolla is 

 large, having yellow petals as a rule, the keel being 

 sharply beaked. The pod is turgid with very convex 

 valves, 



