PLATE 344. 



PENTAS WYLEI, N.E.B. (Kew Bulletin, 1901, p. 123.) 

 Natural Order, 







An erect undershrub, 2 to 4 feet high bearing cymes of white flowers. Stems 

 erect, much branched, bluntly quadrangular and furrowed on the sides, the younger 

 parts copiously pilose with whitish hairs, older nearly glabrous. Leaves opposite, 

 decussate, stipulate, petiolate, lamina reaching to 5 inches lonsr, 2 to 2J inches 

 broad, broadly ovate, lanceolate, margins quite entire, acuminate at apex to a blunt 

 point, tapering at base to a winged and channelled petiole, pilose on the veins 

 beneath, upper surface with scattered hairs rising from a tubercular base, petioles 

 f to 1^ inches long densely pilose, recurved and slightly thickened at the poin I. 

 Stipules, several lobed, the lobes subulate, arising from a broad base which con- 

 nects the opposite petioles, the central one longest, 4 to 5 lines long. Calyx 

 gamosepalous, unequally divided, the lobes 4 to 6, differing much in size, longer 

 than the tube, lanceolate to linear-lance -late, ciliate with whitish hairs, alternating 

 with 4 to 6 minute glands, tube turbinate, much enlarged and strongly ribbed in 

 fruit. Corolla gamopetalous, 5-lobed, tube cylindrical, widening upwards, longer 

 than the lobes, lobes spreading, minutely cuspidate, the whole corolla 5 to 6 lines 

 long, pilose externally, hairy in throat, valvate in aestivation. Stamens five, in- 

 serted just below throat", anthers linear, 2-celled. Ovary inferior, 2-celled, ovules 

 numerous. Style slender, 2-lobed Capsule, sub globose, 8-ribbed, opening at apex. 

 Seeds numerous, angular, minutely and closely pitted ; brown. 



Habitat: NATAL: Zululand, Uiigoya forest, 2000 feet alt, Wylie in Herb. 

 Wood, Nos. 7590 and 8480. 



The genus Pentas includes 10 species, of which 7 are natives of Tropical 

 Africa, 2 of Madagascar, and the one above described, which is so far as known to 

 us the only one in Natal. It has only been found in the locality named, 

 where it grows in light shade in the forest. The drawing was taken from a young 

 plant in the Botanical Gardens, Durban. In older plants the branches are more 

 elongated, and the internodes are longer. 



Fig. 1 , a flower ; 2, tube of corolla opened, showing insertion of stamens ; 3, 

 style and stigma ; 4, capsule ; 5, transverse section of ovary; 6, node of stem with 

 stipules, natural size ; ail but Fiy. 6 enlarged. 



