PLATE 348. 



NOLLETIA RARIFOLIA, Turcz. (Fl. Cap. Vol. Ill, P. Ill, sub Leptothamnus). 



Natural order, COMPOSITE. 



An erect sparingly leafy plant with yellow flower heads. Root woody. Stems 

 12 to 18 inches high, branching from above the base, striate. Leaves sessile, 

 linear, quite glabrous, entire, distant, acute ; 3 to 9 lines long, less than 1 line wide, 

 quite erect, -J to 1^ inches apart. Heads solitary at ends of the branch'ets forming 

 a very loose corymbose infloresence. Heads many-flowered, heterogamous, discoid. 

 Receptacle flat, naked, pitted. Involucral scales in two or thre series, linear- 

 oblong, acute, scarious, innermost longest. Florets, outer row female, filiform, un- 

 equally 4-fid at apex, one or two lobes longer than the others ; style, bifid with 

 subulate lobes ; stigmas minutely glandular. Disk florets perfect, tubular, 5- 

 lobed at apex ; styles bifid ; branches compressed, acute, more glandular than those 

 of the ray florets; anthers obtuse at base. Pappus bristles in one series, barbed, 

 rough. Achenes oblong, compressed, minutely hairy. 



Habitat : NATAL : Slopes of Drakensberg, 4-5000 feet alt, January, Wood, No. 

 3597 ; amongst grass near Mooi River, 4200 feet alt, November, Wood, No. 4065 ; 

 NTondweni, Zululand, 0-800 feet alt, December, / Wylie (Wood, No. 9424); also 

 in Transvaal, Magaliesberg, Burke Sf Zeyher, Nos. 802 and 103. 



Of the genus Nolletia, which includes Leptothamnus, 4 species only are enu- 

 merated in the Index Kewensis, 3 of which are South African, and 1 in N.W. 

 Africa, the species here figured being the only one known to us as having been 

 found in Natal. It is an inconspicuous plant and has no known useful propeities. 



Fig. 1, involucral scale; 2, ray floret; 3, style and stigmas of same; 4, disk 

 floret ; 5, style and stigmas of same ; 6, stamens ; 7, pappus scale ; all enlarged. 



