PLATE 350. 



LOTONONIS WYLEI, J. M. Wood, n- sp. 

 Natural Order, LEGUMINOSJ;. 



A much-branched, densely-leafy undershrub, reaching to 4 or 5 feet in height, 

 and bearing a profusion of blue flowers. Stems and branches finely and closely 

 silky pubescent with minute white hairs. Leaves trifoliate, petiolate, stipulate ; 

 leaflets oblanceolate, mucronate, entire, subsessile, ^ to 1 inch long, 1 to "2^ lines 

 wide in centre, pubescent with silky white hairs above, more densely so beneath ; 

 petiole to f| inch long, pilose ; stipules in pairs, resembling the leaflets, oblong, 2 

 to 4 lines long. Flowers axillary or terminal on the short branchlets, in 4 to 5 

 flowered racemes or solidary; peduncles ^ to 1 inch long, pubescent, pedicels 2 to 

 3 lines long. Calyx gamosepalous, silky, tube campanulate, limb unequally 5-fid, 

 the lowest segment longer than the others, equalling calyx tube, the 4 upper ones 

 connate in two 2-fid pairs ; all acute. Corolla papilionaceous ; vexillum broadly 

 rotund, silky pubescent externally; alae oblong, auricled, cross-ridged on face, shorter 

 than vexillum ; carina obtuse, equalling vexillum. Stamens monadelphous in a split 

 tube ; anthers dissimilar, alternate ones shorter and versatile, others longer and 

 basifixed. Ovary subsessile, pilose, many ovuled ; style curved ; stigma oblique, 

 capitate. Legume narrowly linear, pilose, acute, straight, 1 inch long, slightly 

 compressed, subtended lay the persistent calyx ; seeds glabrous, subglobose, light 

 brown. 



Habitat: NATAL: Entumeni, Zululand, 2-3000 feet alt, April, /. Wylie (Wood, 

 No. 8962) ; same locality, March, /. Wylie (Wood, No. 9442). 



This plant was first gathered by Mr. Jas. Wylie, now Curator of the Durban 

 Botanic Gardens, and so far as at present known it is confined to the locality given 

 above. The aspect of the plant is very much that of a Crotalaria, but the pod is 

 not inflated, and the flowers are blue, not yellow, as in most of the Natal Crota- 

 larias. It is very floriferous and well worth cultivation. 



Fig. 1 , calyx opened ; 2, vexillum ; 3, ala ; 4, carina ; 5, stamens ; 6, ovary, 

 style, and stigma ; 7, young legume ; 8, valve of legume with immature seeds ; all 

 except Fig. 7 enlarged. 



