251 dryine; up. This seems to be such an extraordinary conservation 

 of cell-contents and vitality under conditions that I believe 

 would be fatal in a very short time to the cells of most plants, 

 that I deem the fact worthy of record, 



8A.— IvISNTOCALYX, N. E. Br. 



Perennial, stemless, Rootstock fleshy, bearing two or more 

 grov'ths, each, under natural conditions, with only one pair of 

 leaves, excent when making^ a new pair. Leaves opposite, unequal, 

 when young erect and pressed together so as to resemble an eagle s 

 beak; adult leaves 



252 srreadinff, large and thick, flat and deltoid in outline on the face, 

 one of them compressed and deeply keeled at the apical part on the 

 back, velvety nuberulous. ^lowers solitary, terminal, pedicillate, 

 without bracts. Calyx uneoually 6-lobed down to the base of the 

 ovary, and vrhen in bud with the base of one of the two larger lobes 

 more projecting then that of the other lobe so as to form a sort of 

 chjn to the bud. Corolla lar^e, petals numerous, free. Stamensn 

 nvimerous, erect, somewhat loose; filaments not bearded, ^lands 



6, stoutly subulate, somev^hat bristly-plumose, acute, ^vary wholly 

 superior and 6-ribed when in flower, becoming half -inferior v/hen 

 in fruit, 6-celled; placentas on the floor of the cells; ovules 

 numerous in each cell. Capsule half -superior, obconic, convex, and 

 with 6 gaping sutural ridges on the top, and with 6 valves and 

 cells; valves deltoid, reflexed-spreeding v;hen expanded; expanding- 

 keels with their basal part rising into a hump half as long as 

 the valve, thin, parallel, minutely toothed at + he edges, and their 

 upper pert adnate to he valve and then forming broad, marginal 

 wings; cells flatly roofed with membranous, flexible cell-wings, 

 v.'ithout a tubercle at the opening. Seeds many in a cell, ovoid, 

 pointed at one end, smooth. 



The only knovm spedies and type of the genus is ^. ^"^iri, 

 N. S, Br., a native of the -^lein Karoo, in South Africa. 



The name is derived from the Latin, mentum, a chin, and calyx, 

 CUP or cal3rx:, because the calvx, when in bud, has a sort of chin to 

 it. 



The affinity of this fine and very distinct genus is not 

 verv evident, but as its vegetative characters more resemble in form 

 of the ^enus Pleiospilos than any other, ^ place it immediately be- 

 fore that genus, although its flora structure is entriely different. 

 The manner in which the entirely superior ovary of the flower be- 

 comes half inferior when in fruit is very remarkable; I have not 

 observed any other si'milar instance, either in this group of plants 

 or in the many thousands of flowers I have dissected belonging to 

 other orders. The somewhat chin-like base of one of the larger 

 cal^rx-lobes is also unlike anythink ^ have seen in any other member 

 of t>iis ffroup of Plants, 



1, M. Muiri , ^, S,- Brown, (-^ig. 128).-- Leaves unequal, spread- 

 ing, the larger of the- -;« ir 2-2^ inches long, 14-21 lines broad at 

 the base and narrovdng from thence in a deltoid manner to amore or 

 less acute a^^ex, 9-12 lines thick at the base and 10-18 lines thick 

 at the deerly-keeled apical pert; the smeller leaf 1^-2 inches long 

 and onl:^ 4-7 lines thick at the apical part, not so deeply keeled es 

 its fellow, otherv/ise similai in shape; both are f]at on the face, 

 the larrer one with a slight oblique tv/ist mot represented in the 

 figure), more or less incurved-hooked (at leest when young) at the 



