^66 Plants and their Ways in South Africa 



Rigid undershrubs. Leaves narrow, crowded, often tufted in the 

 axils. Flowers sessile, blue, white, or pale yellow with a dark centre. 

 Eleven species. 



AAA. Flowers more or less irregular. Anthers free — 

 Cyphia. — Petals 5, separate, or partly clinging by the 



Fig. 348. — -Cyphia Zeyheriana, Pr. 



Capsule 2 -celled, half superior 



upper part of their claws, 

 opening at the top. 



Erect or climbing herbs, mostly with succulent or tuberous edible 

 roots. Flowers blue, white, or pink. 



Order Composite. 



This is the largest order of flowering plants. The flowers 

 are massed together in heads, as in Frotea, and surrounded by 

 an involucre. In compensation the calyx is either wanting or 

 very much reduced, or it is constructed so as to aid in distribut- 

 ing the seed. The calyx is known as the pappus. After 

 flowering, it may enlarge into a parachute for carrying the 

 seeds in the wind, or it is developed into bristles, which seize 

 hold of animals and so distribute the seeds. The corolla is 

 gamopetalous. All the flowers may be tubular and regular or 

 all may be strap-shaped, or the central disc flowers may be 



