144 CRASSULACE^. 



KALANCHOE. f.b.i. 53 iv. 



Stout perennial herbs with lower leaves at least oppo- 

 site; four-partite calyx; flask-shaped tubular corolla 

 with four spreading lobes, persistent round the fruit ; 

 eight stamens ; and oblong seeds with eight to fifteen 

 longitudinal ribs. 



Species 25 chiefly in tropical and South Africa, some in 

 Asia, one in Brazil. 



Kalanchoe grandiflora Wight and Arnott ; F.B.I. ii 415, 

 IV 4 ; the Giant Cabbage flower. A thick-stemmed, thick- 

 leafed shrub with masses of bright yellow four-petalled 

 flowers. 



Stem and lower branches an inch or more thick, 

 but tapering upwards, round and smooth except for the 

 numerous flat leaf-scars, which are in opposite pairs and 

 may be % inch wide and J4 inch deep and are joined 

 round the axis by a smooth ridge, the younger scars 

 showing a row of three to six bundle-scars. Leaves 

 opposite, obovate-obtuse, almost flat at the end, crenulate, 

 glabrous, glaucous and thick. Flowering stem terminal, 

 leafless, two or three feet high, dividing above repeatedly 

 into three yellowish-green branches, the middle one of 

 which always ends in a flower (very regular three-choto- 

 mous cymose panicle). Bracts 1/20 to 54 inch scarious, 

 obovate or elliptic acute : pedicels J^ to M inch expanded 

 under the flower. Calyx tube i/io inch sepals J^ by 

 % inch, oblong-acute. Corolla tube, four-angled, }i inch, 

 contracted at the top and then spreading in four yellow 

 obovate lobes J^ by J4 inch. Stamens eight, four at 

 the mouth of the tube between the lobes and very short, 

 four longer, about 1/16 inch, on the base of the lobes : 

 anthers small. Carpels distinct very nearly to the base, 

 /^ by % inch tapering above to the % inch style : a 

 slender gland or staminode % inch long opposite each. 



