55 



Fig. 1, Branch with leaves and flowers, about natural size ; 2, Flower ; 3, 

 Flower with some of the stamens removed ; 4, Calyx, ovary and style ; 5, Stamens, 

 front and side view; 6, Section of ovary ; all enlarged. 



PLATE 67. 



HEBENSTKETIA COMOSA, Hochst. 

 Natural Order 



An undershrub, perennial from a swollen woody root. Stems several, prect, 

 terete, glabrous, 12 to 18 inches or more high. Leaves scattered, sessile, linear- 

 oblong, glabrous, tapering gradually to base, acute at apex, margin unequally and 

 sharply serrate, teeth and apex of leaves a little thickened, mid-veiu conspicuous, 

 lateral ones obscure ; 1-2 inches long, becoming smaller upwards, 2-4 lines wide. 

 Inflorescence spicate, spikes densely flowered, lengthening with age. Calyx cleft 

 to base in front, oblong, entire, membranous, 2^3 lines long ; bracts lanceolate- 

 acuminate, concave, 4-5 lines long. Corolla deeply cleft in front, 1 lipped, 4 

 lobed, lobes rounded, sub-equal, or 2 outer larger ; white with a large oblong deep 

 red blotch in centre below base of lobes. Stamens 4, didynamous, inserted on 

 margin of lip, shorter than lobes ; anthers 1 celled, filaments thickened at apex ; 

 style filiform, stigma entire. Carpels 2, sub-equal, at length separating, each 1 

 seeded, the back one often, but not always abortive. 



Habitat : NATAL : Coast and Midland districts, common. Flowering on the 

 coast all the spring and summer. Wood No. 68. 



Drawn and described from specimens gathered near Durban, September, 1898. 



The genus Hebenstretia is an exclusively African one, and includes 1 8 species 

 the whole of which are found in South Africa, one only reaching also to Abys- 

 sinia. Some of the species are very handsome, and have been introduced into 

 cultivation in Europe. 



Fig. 1, Plant about natural size; 2, Calyx opened; 3, Corolla opened showing 

 attachment of stamens ; 4, Ovary enclosed in calyx ; 5, Section of ovary ; all 

 enlarged. 



PLATE 68. 



AEISTEA BCKLON(, Baker. 

 Natural Order, IBIDEM. 



An erect herbaceous plant with bright blue flowers. Rootstock, short, thick, 

 oblique, with slender wiry fibres. Leaves chiefly distichous, basal, linear, straight, 

 quite entire, with narrow translucent margins, dark green, glabrous, with many in- 

 distinct parallel veins, acute at apex, equitant and coloured deep red at base, 6-lf 

 inches long. Flowering stems strongly ancipitous for their whole length, bearing 

 several erect branches, each branch subtended at base by a single, leafy, acute, 

 semi-amplexicaul bract, the lowest much the largest, the uppermost small, soon 

 withering. Flowers in clusters of 2-4 on the branches, and on stems at base of 

 branches, each cluster with i-2 membranous, acute, entire, brown bracts at -nse, 

 each flower with 1-2 similar, but smaller ones at base of the short pedicel. 

 Perianth rotate, with a very short tube, and 6 spreading lobes in 2 rows, the 

 outer row of 3, oblong, strongly veined, and ridged with green in centre , th, 

 bright blue above ; inner row of 3, ovate, bright blue on both sides, all emargmate; 



