19 



PLATE 288. 



CHIRONIA PUBPURASCENS, Benth & Hook. (Gen. II. 805). 

 Natural Order, GENTIANS.. 



Herbaceous, with deep pink flowers. Roots fibrous. Stems erect, branching 

 in upper portion, quadrangular, glabrous. Leaves, lower opposite, sessile, exsti- 

 pulate, linear-oblong, tapering to a subacute apex, glabrous, margins entire, 2 to 3 

 inches long, 3 to 5 lines wide, upper ones smaller, linear. Inflorescence in terminal 

 and axillary laxly flowered cymes, the ultimate divisions of which are 1 to 3- 

 flowered. Calyx deeply 5-fid, tube cup-shaped, lobes acuminate, keeled, erect, the 

 whole calyx 4 to 5 lines long. Corolla rotate, expanding to 1 inch diameter, 

 twisted in bud, persistent, tubes short, lobes 5, oblong, acute, spreading. Stamens 

 5, on throat of corolla, alternate with its lobes, filaments one-third as long as lobes 

 of corolla, and with a small scale on each side at base ; anthers 2-celled, straight 

 in bud, afterwards strongly twisted, opening outwards. Ovary superior, oblong, 

 glabrous, furrowed on opposite sides, 1 -celled, placentas 2-fid, ovules many. Style 

 cylindrical, elongate, stigma globose. Capsule dry, 2-valved. Seeds numerous, 

 subglobose, deeply pitted. 



Habitat : NATAL : Coast districts, Clairmont 50 feet alt., October, Wood No. 

 1,154; Umlaas, March, Wood No. 876; Umkwahumbi, April, Wood. 



Drawn and described from specimens gathered near Durban, March, 1902. 



This genus includes about 26 species, all natives of South Africa except two, 

 which are found in Madagascar, and one whose native country is not certainly 

 known, some of them like the one here described are well worth cultivation, and 

 several have been introduced into Europe, the flowers of most, if not of all, of the 

 species are pink or purplish. This plant was formerly known as Plocandra pur- 

 purascens, B.M., the generic name having been given on account of the peculiarly 

 twisted anthers, but the genus Plocandra is now merged in Chironia. 



Fig. 1, calyx; 2, corolla opened; 3, young stamen; 4, mature stamen; 5, 

 ovary, style and stigma; 6, cross section of ovary; 7, seed; all enlarged. 



