Classification of Plants 243 



weed with the habit of shrubs or undershrubs. The calyx is 

 often inflated. The flowers red, orange, or creamy white. 

 Stamens 5, opposite the petals, broad, narrowed toward the 

 top or bottom. Leaves entire or toothed, often plaited. The 

 entire plant often covered with stellate hairs, woolly, velvety, 

 or sticky. 



Mahernia is another plant commonly found. It resembles 

 Herman?iia, but the stamens are suddenly broadened at the 

 middle. Peduncles mostly 2-flovvered, opposite the leaves or 

 tipping the stem. Flowers nodding. 



Order Thymele^. 



Flowers perfect, with a long coloured tube and a 4- 

 parted perianth (sometimes 5). The perianth lobes are 

 spoken of as calyx. The petals are wanting, or possibly re- 

 presented by 2 or 8 scales at the throat of the long 

 calyx tube or hollow receptacle. The ovary is an achene, or 

 a berry which fits so closely within the hollow receptacle that 

 it looks like an inferior ovary. The tube often breaks off just 

 above the ovary. Stamens 4 to 8, borne on the tube. 



Mostly slender shrubs with very tough bark and heath-like 

 leaves. The flowers are arranged in heads, umbels, racemes, 

 or leafy spikes. Honey may be found at the base of the tube 

 by long-tongued insects. 



A. Calyx without scales or glands. 



B. Flowers in stalked umbels 4-5-parted. 



Feddiea. — A glabrous shrub with obovate shining leaves, 

 found in Natal. 

 BB. Flowers in heads or spikes, or in the axils of the leaves. 

 C. Anthers concealed within the tube on short filaments. 



Arthroselen. — Flowers in heads or axillary. Leaves sessile. 

 CC. Anthers on slender filaments showing above the tube. 

 D, Stamens 10. Flowers in heads. 



Dais. — Flower heads surrounded by a 4-leaved involucre. 

 Leaves large, flat. Eastern district and Natal. 

 DD. Stamens 8. Flowers in spikes within axils of leafy bracts. 

 Passerina. — Nut dry, with a hard shell. Leaves opposite and 



decussate. 

 Chymococca. — Berry fleshy, containing a hard seed, similar to 

 Passerina. 



