PLATE 343. 



CENIA HISPIDA, Bth and Hk. (Fl. Cap. Vol. III., p. 183, sup Cotula.) 

 Natural Order, COMPOSITE. 



A perennial plant with woody roots. Sterr>s many, branched at base, 6 to 12 

 inches or more long, often curved or ascending, pilose with long white hairs, lenfy 

 in the lower half, pedunculoid and glabrous upwards. Leaves, lower petiolate, the 

 petiole flattened, pinnati-partite, the lobes callous tipped, thinly pilose like the 

 stems, upper leaves simply pinnate, subsessile. Peduncles elongate, reaching to 6 

 inches long, one headed, top-shaped, hollow and lined just under the flower head. 

 Involucral scales, many, in two or three series, obtuse at apex with a dark coloured 

 midvein, and a lacerate, hyaline border. Receptacle, convex, naked, papillose. 

 Heads, homogamous, many flowered, flowers yellow, pappus none, corollas tubular, 

 4-toothed, sessile, very narrowly winged, glandular on the wings and fringed at 

 base, hooded at apex. Anthers blunt at base. Style arms, truncate ; achenes com- 

 pressed, glabrous. 



Habitat : NATAL : Oliver's Hoek Pass, 6-7000 feet alt, January, Wood, No. 

 3610; Great Noodsberg, 2-3000 feet alt, April, Wood, 4127; near Van Reenen, 

 5-6000 feet alt, February, Wood, No. 9279. 



A low growing plant with flower heads 4 to 9 lines diameter ; usually found 

 in stony places. The lower leaves are from 1 to 2^ inches long, becoming gradu- 

 ally smaller upwards, the uppermost very small and linear ; the style arms are very 

 short and appear to be slit down the side as shown in the drawing. The genus 

 Cenia includes 8 species, all natives of South Africa, but the one here described is 

 so far as known to us, the only one found in Natal. The Flora Capensis enumerates 

 4 species only, the other 4, including the one here described, will be found under 

 Cotula Sect Discocotula ; they are G. barbata, 0. Thunbergii, C. svricea, and C. 

 hispida. They have been removed from the genus Cotula chiefly on account of the 



geculiar top-shaped apices of the peduncles, which is a characteristic of the genus 

 enia. 



Fig. 1, outer involucral scale ; 2, inner involucral scale ; 3, floret ; 4, lobe 

 of corolla ; 5, two stamens ; 6, portion of style and style arms ; all enlarged. 



