23 



PLATE 271. 



STACHYS NIGRICANS, Bth. (in E. Mey. Comm. PI. Afr. Austr. 238). 

 Natural Order, LABIATE. 



Herbaceous with white or pinky white flowers. Roots several, fusiform, 2-5 

 inches long, 2 to 4 lines wide. Steins slender, erect, quadrangular, sulcate, pilose, 

 simple or branched, 2 to 4 feet or more in height. Leaves opposite, decussate, 

 exstipulate, subsessile, linear-oblong, crenate, obtuse at apex, rounded at base, 

 bullate on upper surface, veins very prominent beneath ; hispid on upper surface, 

 and on veins and veinlets beneath ; 1^ to 2^ inches long, 4 to 6 lines wide. In- 

 florescence in axillary 6-flowered whorls forming a terminal raceme. Calyx gamo- 

 sepalous, 5-lobed half-way down, 5-ribbed, finely pilose externally; tube campa- 

 nulate, lobes acuminate, ciliate ; the whole calyx 2 to 3 lines long ; pedicels 1-line 

 long. Corolla gamopetalous, long exserted, bilabiate, tube longer than calyx, 

 cylindrical ; upper lip suberect, entire, concave, external in bud, hispid externally 

 and ciliate, light pink, lower lip 3-lobed, the central lobe much the largest, ovate 

 or sub-rotund, twice longer than upper lip, emarginate, finely hispid on midvein 

 beneath, glabrous above, lateral lobes small, acute; white with faint pink mark- 

 ings in throat ; the whole corolla 6 to 8 lines long. Stamens 4, didynamous, 

 inserted below throat, ascending under the concave upper lip of corolla ; anthers 

 2-celled, cells divergent. Style slender, subequally 2-fid, the lobes acute. Nuts 

 4, ovate, glabrous, seated on an annular disk. 



Habitat : NATAL : Coast and midlands. Inanda, 1,800 feet alt, November, 

 Wood No. 5 ; near Tongaat, 800 feet alt, October, Wood No. 8320. 



The genus Stachys includes some 200 species which are widely dispersed, 

 about 30 or more are found in South Africa, and of these 10 have been identified 

 as natives of Natal. The above described plant is perhaps the tallest of the Natal 

 species, it has no real economic value so far as known to us, but the natives are 

 said to use the roots as a sort of tonic and call it u-Musa. 



It will be noticed that the anther cells are said to be divergent, but this is 

 hardly discernable when the flowers are fully opened, but an examination of the 

 young bud shows it at once. 



Fig. 1, flower; 2, corolla opened; 3, calyx opened; 4, ovary, style and 

 stigma ; 5, ovaries and disk ; all enlarged. 



