39 

 PLATE 48. 



COLEOTRYPE NATALENSIS, C. B. Clarke. 



Natural Order COM.MELINACE.E. 



A herbaceous plant with pale blue flowers. Stems decumbent, and rooting 

 below at nodes, terete, green, fleshy, glabrous and shining. Leaves alternate, 

 sheathing the stem at their base, the blade broadly lanceolate-acuminate, entire, 

 glabrous, veins obscure, tapering and channelled at base, 3-6 .inches long,; f W- 

 wide in central portion, with a few pilose hairs at base, the sheath completely 

 clasping the stem for 6-9 lineg, arid pilose with long white hairs at its upper edge, 

 pubescent on outer surface Inflorescence of a few flowers at nodes, Avhich.at 

 maturity burst through the base of the sheath and open in succession, surrounded 

 with several leafy bracts. Sepals 3, distinct, linear, green in upper half, with a 

 few hairs on midvein ; 7-9 lines long. Corolla tube slender, cylindrical, 9 lines- long, 

 lobes 3, sub-orbicular, spreading, 9 lines long, 6-7 lines wide, pale blue stamens 6, 

 all perfect, on corolla at throat, and about one-third as long as its lobes, flaments 

 clothed with long jointed hairs, anthers 2 celled, ovoid, equal, cells parallel. Ovary 

 sessile at base of corolla tube, pilose with long white hairs, 3 celled, cells 1-2 

 ovuled, ovules superposed. Style longer than stamens. Stigma cup-shaped. 

 Fruit a capsule. 



Habitat : NATAL: Coast district?, reaching to 2000 feet above the sea level. 

 Drawn and described from plants gathered on Berea, December, 1897. 



This genus includes 3 species only, the other two being natives of Madagascar. 

 In the Order to which it belongs the. genus is remarkable for the manner in which 

 it produces its flowers, the inflorescence being forced through the base of the 

 sheath, and not issuing from the mouth of a spathaceous bract as in the allied 

 genera Commelina, and Cyanotis, the. only two Natal genera which have this 

 sheath like bract, hence the generic name of the present species, which means 

 "sheath borer." The bead-like hairs on the filaments are also present in some of 

 the other genera, notably so in Cyanotis, which is so common all over the colony, 

 and under a microscope with careful manipulation, the rotation of 'the sap may be 

 observed in them. 



Fig. 1, Plant, natural size; 2, Sepal, front view ;. 3, Stamens; 4, Section of 

 ovary; 5, Jointed hair on filaments; 6, Flower, showing tube of corolla ; all 

 variously magnified. 



PLATE 49. 



SOLANUM DUPLO-SINUATUM, KlotZSCil. 



Natural Order SOTMNAGEAE. 



An erect herbaceous plant, usually. 1-2 feet high, but sometimes in shady 

 places and with support. of the undershrubs reaching 4 feet in height. Steins 

 terete, green, thickly clothed with stellate hairs, and with a few scattered spines. 

 Leaves with 5-6 lobes on each side, the 3 central ones largest, interspaces wide, 

 the edges sinuate, or lobed, 1-3 lobes on each side, varying much in depth, the 

 apices acute, midvein and lateral veins armed with spines both above and beneath, 

 spines 3-5 lines long ; more or less covered with purple stellate hairs ; lamina 

 above hirsute, young ones densely so, the hairs springing from a swollen base ; 

 beneath densely stellate-pubescent, with white hairs; 5-15 inches long, 4-12 



