200 Plants and their Ways in South Africa 



the leaves. The flowers are with large brightly coloured 

 bracts. 



Strelitza has large elliptical leaves on long petioles 

 arranged in two ranks. The flower-stalks push through the 

 sheathing petioles. The curious flower consists of three bright 

 orange sepals, two standing erect. Two small blue petals 

 form an archway over the entrance to the nectar, the other 

 large arrow-shaped petal forms a lip containing the five stamens 

 and style within a central groove. Beyond the lip the stigma 

 is exposed. Nectarinia afra, one of the sun-birds, corre- 

 sponding in colour to the flowers, probes for the honey with 

 its long slender beak, and rubs first the stigma and then the 

 anthers, which are exposed, by pressing down on the lip. The 

 fruit is a capsule containing several black seeds with a bright 

 orange feathery arillus. Eastern plants. 



Musa (banana). — The sheaths of leaves, rolled around one 

 another, give the appearance of long stems. The flowers are 

 enclosed in brightly coloured bracts, and are also pollinated by 

 birds. In the cultivated plants no seeds are developed from 

 the ovules. Fruit a berry. 



Order Orchidace^. 



Strange and grotesque as the orchids often are, by careful 

 study the same parts can be found as are present in the 

 Iridacese. In the bud, three parts, the sepals overlap the 

 petals. Two sepals are similar to each other, as are also two 

 of the petals. The odd sepal may be, and the odd petal (the 

 lip) is nearly always, peculiar in shape. These parts may be 

 either very large and showy, or so reduced in size as almost to 

 escape notice. As in the Iridacese, the inner circle of stamens 

 is wanting in South African orchids. Of the outer circle, only 

 one bears pollen. It is always opposite the odd sepal. The 

 other two are peculiar staminodia. All three are joined with 

 the style to form the column. Two of the stigmas are usually 

 joined, forming a cushion-shaped body for receiving the pollen, 

 while the third is enlarged and forms the rostellum. It fur- 

 nishes a sticky fluid, which fastens the pollen grains together 



