22 



PLATE 291. 



CROTALABIA LANOEOLATA, B. Mey. (Fl. Cap. Vol. 2, p. 43). 

 Natural Order, LEGTTHINOS.S:. 



An erect branching undershrub with yellow purple lined flowers; 1 to 2^ 

 feet high. Stem and branches angular, striate, green, minutely pubescent. 

 Leaves alternate, exstipulate, trifoliolate, petioles 1 to 2 inches long, terete, 

 swollen at base, furrrowed above ; leaflets lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, acute 

 or obtuse, mucronate, tapering at base to a very short petiole, margins quite 

 entire, minutely ciliate, veins prominent beneath, glabrous above, minutely 

 pubescent beneath with short adpressed hairs ; 2 to 3^ inches long, ^ to f inch 

 wide in centre ; petiolules 1 line long, thickened, puberulous. Racemes terminal, 

 elongate, floriferous for three quarters of their length. Calyx gamosepalous, un- 

 equally 5-toothed, 10-veined, conical or intruse at base, tube cup-shaped, teeth 

 acute, less than. half as long as tnbe, the whole calyx 1^ line long. Bracts minute. 

 Corolla papilionaceous, vexillum suborbicular, emarginate, strongly reflexed, 

 yellow above, yellow and purple lined beneath ; alae oblong, obtuse, yellow with 

 \purple lines and blotch at base, longer than carina ; carina falcate, green with 

 purple lines. Stamens 10, monadelphous, filaments filiform; anthers 5, linear- 

 oblong ' and 5 ovate, all 2-celled. Ovary superior, pubescent ; style strongly 

 curved, laterally pubescent; stigma globose. Legume strongly deflexed, turgid 

 with convex valves, pubescent, on a stipes 3 lines long, dorsal suture deeply in- 

 dented, minutely incurved at apex, and tipped with remains of style ; ly to 1^ 

 inch long, 2 to 3 lines wide. 



Habitat : NATAL : Grassy hill, Inanda, 1,800 feet alt, Wood No. 99 ; in similar 

 s ituations near Durban, 250 feet alt, March, Wood No. 8-150. 



Drawn and described from a specimen gathered on the Berea near Durban, 

 150 feet alt, March, 1902. 



A small branching plant "with the habit of a Lupin," bearing flowers which 

 are yellow lined with purple, it is apparently confined to South Africa, and the 

 only locality given for it in the Flora Capensis is Natal. So far as known to us it 

 has no economic value and the natives have no specific name for it. 



Fig. 1, flower; 2, calyx opened; 3, vexillum; 4, ala; 5, carina: 6, staminal 

 tube opened ; 7, ovary, style and stigma ; 8, legume, natural size ; except fig. 8, 

 all enlarged. 



