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PLATE 284. 



ANEILEMA AEQUINOOTIALE, Kunth. (Fl. Cap. Vol. 7, p. 12.) 

 Natural Order, COMMELINACE.S;. 



An herbaceous plant with yellow flowers. Stems weak, often branched, the 

 branches bursting through the lower part of the false petiole, terete, very finely 

 ribbed, pilose with long white cellular hairs, which are hooked at apex, and spring 

 from a tubercular base ; 2 to 8 feet long. Leaves alternate, elliptic or lanceolate 

 to ovato-lanceolate, acute at apex, margins entire, suddenly at base rounded to a 

 short 3-lines broad fal.se petiole which in its lower portion clasps the stem as an 

 entire sheath, and is like it covered with hooked hairs and rough to the touch; the 

 lamina 3 to (5 inches or more long, f to 2 inches wide, pubescent and ciliate. In- 

 florescence terminal, paniculate, with a small bract at each division of the panicle, 

 the flowers alternate on its branches, bracteate, each cup-shaped bract enclosing 1 

 to 3 flowers, the branches lengthening during flowering, the lowest flowers open- 

 ing first. Perianth 6-parted in two rows, outer row (sepals) 3, oblong, obtuse, 

 green, subsimilar, 3 to 4 lines long, reflexed ; inner row (petals) 3, very unequal, 

 the two larger ones 5 lines long, 4 lines wide, all clawed, yellow, the smaller one 

 2-3 lines long, 1 to 2 lines wide Stamens 6, of which 2-3 are fertile, remainder 

 barren ; filaments of fertile on-js 3 to 4 lines long, one usually much shorter than 

 the others and its anther smaller, finely pilose, yellow; anthers 2-celled, erect ; 

 filaments of barren stamens much shorter, with the anther cells separated in a 

 cruciform manner Ovary superior, usually 2, but sometimes 3-celled, the third 

 cell when present smaller and with fewer ovules or empty, others 3-ovuled. 

 Capsule compressed, truncate, the opposite angles acute, style longer than stamens, 

 glabrous, purple; stigma truncate. .Seeds sub-quadrangular, rugose brown. 



Habitat : NATAL : Coast and Midlands. Inanda, 1,800 feet alt, April, Wood 

 No. 540 ; near Durban, Wood. 



This genus contains about 60 species, found in the warmer parts of the world, 

 but three only are found in South Africn. The one here described is said to be 

 distributtd "throughout Tropical Africa and Arabia." The flowers are yellow in 

 all the specimens collected in Natal, but a specimen collected by Thorncroft No. 

 265 ( Wood A'o. 4507) had blue flowers according to the collectors' note, and both 

 of these numbers are quoted in the Flora Capensis. The Flora of Tropical Africa 

 says in the description of the species that the petals are " yellow, blue, mauve or 

 lilac " and in a footnote, " There is ample evidence of the variation in the colour 

 of the petals ; the different coloured flowers have been esteemed different species 

 by many collectors." In sending Thorncroft's specimen to Kew we were of 

 opinion that it might prove to be a different variety to the one we have here, and 

 it has in fact now been named A. aequinoc.twle var Kirkii. In consequence of the 

 peculiar transparent hairs which thickly clothe the stem and branches, and which 

 are curved to a lounded hook at the apex, the plant is not only harsh to the touch, 

 but clings to the clothing, and doubless also the skins of passing animals. 



Fig. 1 , a flower ; 2, same, calyx and corolla removed ; 3, longitudinal section 

 of same ; 4, cross section of same ; 5, capsule ; 6, seed showing both sides ; all 

 enlarged. 



