PLATE 330. 



VEBNONIA G-EBBARDI, HABV. (Fl. Cap. Vol, III, p. 53.) 

 Natural Order COMPOSITE. 



A many stemmed herbaceous plant with thick, woody roots. Stems branched 

 below and, like th branches, strongly furrow-striate, minutely scurfy and gland- 

 dotted, 15 to 18 inches high. Leaves simple, sub-sessile, linear, acute, entire, 

 flat, narrowed to base, glabrous, conspicuously gland-dotted on both surfaces, 1 to 

 2 inches long, smaller upwards. Heads many flowered, discoid, solitary on long 

 peduncles, which reach 12 to 18 inches in height and bear a few depauperated 

 leaves; 3 to 4 inches diameter. Flowers purple. Involucral scales in several 

 series, lanceolate, cuspidate-acuminate, the lower and central ones recurved, upper- 

 most erect, lowest shortest, all cobwebby and woolly ciliate. Pappus scales in two 

 series, outer ones few, short, flat, serrate ; inner ones very long, bristle-like, bar- 

 bellate. Corolla tubular, deeply 5-fid, lobes linear-oblong, obtuse. Stamens 5, 

 anthers subsagittate. Achenes ribbed, densely silky. 



Habitat: NATAL: Biggarsberg, Oerrard, 1060; near Estcourt, 3-4000 feet 

 alt, December, Wood, No. 3595 ; near Howick, 3-4000 feet alt, November, Wood, 

 No. 5120; Mooi River, 4-5000 feet alt, December, Wood, No. 6171 ; Zululand, 

 1-2000 feet alt, March, Wood, No. 8756. 



The genus Vernonia is a very large one including nearly 400 species, confined 

 to tropical and subtropical regions. Of these 64 are found in tropical and 15 in 

 South Africa, and 14 of these have have been collected in Natal. The species are 

 of diverse habit, some being trees, some shrubs and herbaceous plants, and some 

 climbers. V. Gerrardi is remarkable on account of its involucral scales being 

 squarrose, resembling some species of Athrixia, and it is a plant not unworthy of 

 cultivation. 



Note. In the drawing the anthers are by mistake shown as obtuse at base ; 

 they are really sagittate as in V. monocephala PI. 331. 



Fig. 1 , involucral scale ; 2, floret ; 3, outer pappus scale ; 4, pappus bristle ; 

 5, stamens ; all enlarged. 



