Classification of Plants 



223 



Rubus (the bramble) is a native of the Colony and of 

 Natal. The fruit is a cluster of little drupes. Trailing shrubs 

 armed with prickles. 



Geum has handsome bright yellow flowers i-i^ inch 

 across. The achenes are very hairy, tailed with the hooked or 

 curved styles, G. capensis^ the only species, is a herbaceous 

 plant 1-2 feet high, with large radical leaves and a few small 

 stem leaves. From Grahamstown to Natal. 



Cliffortia. — Calyx 3-parted (sometimes 4). Corolla want- 

 ing. The flowers secrete no honey, but the stigmas are wind 

 pollinated. The staminate flowers are ^ 



often found a long distance from shrubs 

 bearing pistillate flowers. Leaves tri- 

 foliate, or the three leaflets may be 

 joined into one. Many have reduced 

 leaves tipped with sharp points. A 

 common bush in the Colony and Natal 

 with small greenish axillary flowers. 



Grielum is a trailing plant with 

 hoary compound leaves, growing in 

 sandy places and salt ground. Calyx 

 joined with the 5 -parted succulent fruit. 

 Corolla regular, 5-parted, with the 10 

 stamens borne at the throat of the 



Fig. 220. — I, Flower of straw- 

 calyx (receptacle), tube. Flowers are berry cut through ; 2, front ; 



1 1, 1 ,1 1 1 3, back of stamen ; 4, pistil : 



large, yellow, and the plant may be «, ovary :/;, style ;c, stigma. 



• . 1 r • (From Henslow's "South 



mistaken for a geranium. Xfrican Flowering Plants.") 



Order Leguminose^. 



This order, the second largest in the world, is found in 

 every kind of soil, in any climate, and shows a corresponding 

 variety in habit. Trees, shrubs, herbs, erect, climbing, or 

 prostrate. Because of the bacteria which live in their roots, 

 they can thrive in and enrich very poor soil. The plants climb 

 by leaf tendrils, stem tendrils, by twining, and by hooks. 

 Leaves alternate, stipulate, and nearly always compound. 

 Fruit usually a legume, sometimes a lomentum. Some pods 



