31 



PLATE 300. 



THUNBEBGIA ALATA, Bojer. (Fl. Cap. Vol. V., p. 10). 

 Natural Order, ACANTHAOEJ:. 



A twining plant bearing orange yellow flowers with purple centre. Stems 

 terete or striate, pubescent, wide climbing, branched. Leaves opposite, petiolate, 

 exstipulate, broadly hastate, entire or obscurely toothed, pubescent on both surfaces, 

 dark green above, much paler beneath ; 1 to "3^ inches long, f to 3J inches wide 

 at base ; petioles 1 to 4^ inches long, conspicuously winged. Bracteoles 2, broad, 

 keeled, concave and connivent at base, tapering to an acute apex, veiny, green, 

 herbaceous ; in fruit 10 lines or more long, 6 to 8 lines wide. Calyx of 12 linear 

 teeth about 2-lines long, and joined in a ring at base, minutely glandular hairy. 

 Corolla gamopetalous, salver-shaped, tube f inch long, 1 line wide at base, then 

 suddenly widening to 3 lines at throat, clothed with glandular septate hairs, 

 especially at base, deep purple inside, lighter externally; limb 5-lobed, lobes 

 broadly ovate, subtruncate, expanding to 1 to 1^ inch diameter. Stamens 4, 

 didynamous, included, inserted at base of corolla tube; filaments glabrous; anthers 

 2-celled, some or all spurred at base, fringed with moniliform glandular hairs. 

 Ovary superior, 2-celled, cells 2-ovuled, ovules collateral ; style longer than 

 stamens, minutely glandular ; stigma 2-lobed, one lobe much above the other ; 

 upper lobe obliquely truncate, concave, split down to the lower lobe which is 

 obliquely cup-shaped. Capsule depressed globose, pubescent, ^ inch diameter at 

 base, rostrate, the beak 4 to 7 lines long. Seeds sub-hemispheric or sub-globose, 

 black, reticulate. 



Habitat: NATAL: Near Durban, Wood No. 495; 3092, and without precise 

 locality, Cooper, 2771. 



" Indigenous in Natal and Tropical Africa, introduced into many warm parts 

 of the world." 



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



In Natal this plant appears to be confined to the coast districts where it is 

 plentiful, we have not met with it very far inland, there is a considerable differ- 

 ence in the size of the leaves and length of the petioles, and the glandular hairs at 

 base of corolla and margins of anther cells are well worthy of microscopic 

 examination. The spurs at base of anther cells are not always present, and 

 when absent they appear to be represented by a tuft of glandular hairs. The 

 plant is ornamental, but of no economic value, and the natives do not appear to 

 distinguish between it and some other species of Thunbergia, and have no dis- 

 tinctive name for it. 



Fig. 1, corolla tube opened; 2, calyx; 3, stamen; 4, hair of anther cell ; 5, 

 hair from base of filament ; 6, style and stigma, side view ; 7, same, front view ; 8, 

 capsule ; 9, cross section of ovary ; all enlarged. 



