313 petlolate, ovate or lanceolate, flat, ^lovers solitary, axillary 

 or in the forks of the branches pedicellate, bractless. Calyx 

 riroduced above its union with the ovpry into a short tube, very 

 uneoually 4-lobed ?ibove, tvro of the lobes being large end leaf- 

 like. Petals very much shorter than the calyx-lobes, linear, u- 

 nited into a short tube at the base, nrising at the middle of the 

 nroduced caly^-x-tube . Staraensnumerous , in many series, arising 

 from the corolla-tube, erect. Stigmas 4, smell, stout, obtuse; 

 no style. Ovary partly'- superior, 4-celled; placentas axile. 'cap- 

 sule with 4 valves and ce'ls; valves recurving v/hen v/etted, very 

 broad, each with 2 thin and deep perallel (or sub-contiguous?) 

 expanding-keels toothed all along their tops, and vdth an in- 

 flexed thin membranous flap or wing turned back from their tips 

 and attached to the valve about midway between the keels and margin 

 of the valve and forming a sort of pocket on the outer side of 

 each keel; cells open, no cell-wings or tubercles. Seeds moderate- 

 ly shaned large for the grour, reniformly D-shaped, minutely tuber- 

 culate.~N. E. Br., in The Gardeners' Chronicle, 1925, Vol.tXJ^III, 

 p. 412. 



Srecies 1, P. Kgeckeliana, N, E, Bp. , a native of South -f-frica. 



The name is derived from the Greek, platys, broad, and thyris, 

 a door, in allusion to the brocd valves of the capsule. 



By its habit and p etiolate leaves this genus bears some resem- 

 blance to Aptenia cordifolium and Cryophytum -^^-itonis. ^ron the 

 former, however, it diffe'^s by the calyx being produced into a 

 shorter tube above the ov^ry and by the presence of infolded mem- 

 branous flaps to the -valves of the capsule, ^rom the latter by 

 all the leaves being opposite and the flowers seated in the forks 

 of the branches. 



I. P. Haeckelirna, N, E. Br. — Plant forming a flat carpet 

 3-5 feet in diameter of prostrate herbaceous branching stems. 

 Leaves all opposite, and , including the petiole, 1-2 inches long 

 and 3-9 lines bropd, lanceolate, subacute, cuneately narrov/ed into 

 a petiole, not or scarcely united at the base, flat or slightly 

 concave above and with a stout, rounded keel or midrib on the back, 

 glabrous. Flowers terminal in the forks of the branches or some- 

 times in leafy cymes. Pedicels 6"13 lines long. Calyx v.dth the 

 two larger lobes leaf-like, 6-11 lines long and 3-4 lines broad. 

 Petals apparently about 4-5 lines long, with their united part about 

 1 line long, pale yellov;. Stigm<-:s scarcely 1 line long, stout. 

 Capsuel about 3 lines in diameter when closed. Seeds about in- 

 line in diameter, compressed, minutely tuberculate, brovm. 

 Othervi'ise as for the genus. 



II. Haeckelianum, Berger in Eji^ie Bot. »^ahrb.. Vol. XLV ^ p. 



224 (1910). N.E.Br, in Bothalia , ^ol. I, p. 160. il, ovatum, Thunb., 

 Fl. Cap., ed. Schultes, p. 417 (1823), but not of his earlier works, 

 see Bothalia at place above quoted, ^'j. elongetum, Eckl. end «^eyh., 

 Enum. Fl. Afr. Austr., p. 321 (l836), not of Haworth, M, angulatum, 

 Eckl. and 2eyh.,var. ovatum, Sond. in^^ ^1. Cpp.^ VqI. II ^^ p. 454. 



Uitenhage division* ^aiiey and hills of ^wartkops ^iver, 

 Zeyher 2,624. Near Uitenhage, uuir 3946. T^unberg. 



21.— APTEtllA, N. E. -Br. 



A succulent herb, perennial, but of short duration; branches 

 elongated, with di'st^nct intemodes, prostrate. Agaves opposite, 



