PLATES 353, 354. 



IPOMOEA SAUNDERSIANA, Baker (Fl. Cap. Vol. IV., p. 60). 

 Natural Order, CONVOLVULACEAE. 



A strong climber with large leaves, milky sap and bearing pure white floAvers 

 which are open all the day. Steins, young ones finely pubescent, older glabrous ; 

 wide climbing. Leaves cordate, margins entire, glabrous above, pubescent on 

 veins beneath : main veins very prominent beneath and running from midrib to 

 margin : reaching to 8 or 10 inches long and wide : petiole -i to 7 inches long, 

 minutely and sparsely pubescent. Inflorescence of few flowered axillary cymes. 

 Bracts 2, oblong-ovate, cuspidate, minutely pubescent externally and finely ciliate, 

 deciduous. Buds oblong-acuminate. Sepals 5, concave, broadly ovate, obtuse 

 with a minute cusp, glabrous, 1| inch long and wide. Corolla funnel-shaped, 

 margin entire but unequal, recurved ; 3] to 4 inches long and wide, tube sub- 

 cylindrical. Stamens 5, on corolla tube at base, filaments broad, concave and 

 finely pubescent in lower portion, subulate and glabrous above, half as long as 

 corolla; anthers 2-celled, spirally twisted. Style filiform; stigma 2-lobed, lobes 

 subglobose. Ovary 2-celled, cells 2-ovuled. Capsule globose, glabrous, 4 to 1 

 inch diameter, seeds subglobose, black, very minutely pxiberulous ; 4 lines 

 diameter. 



Habitat: Xot known with certainty. In Bot. Gardens, Durban, cult. Wood 



Xo. .11 135. 



Drawn and described from a plant which flowered in Botanic Gardens, 

 Durban, June and July, 1904, the seed having lain dormant in the ground for at 

 least 17 years; the locality where the plant was first collected is doubtful, but it 

 was understood that the original plant which flowered in the Gardens for the first 

 time about 1882, and died a year or two afterwards, was raised from seeds given to 

 the Former Curator by the late Mrs. Saunders, and we understood that she had 

 received them from the " interior of Africa." \\ e have never met with the plant 

 in a wild state in Natal. In the Flora Capensis it is stated that it is the only 

 South African species belonging to the Section Opercidinum, distinguished by the 

 "anthers being spirally twisted, and the capsule having a lid which falls off 

 when ripe." The plant lias been imder daily observation during the flowering 

 and fruiting season, and special notice has been taken of the ripening of the large 

 capsules. After the corolla and bracts have fallen away the sepals close tightly 

 and remain . so For many days, then gradually opening and becoming diy ; it is 

 then seen that the exterior portion of the upper half of the capsule (exocarp) has 

 become quite detached and shrivelled, and has the remains of the style projecting 

 through its centre, the remaining upper portion of the capsule (endocarp) becom- 

 .g thin, indistinctly veiny, and papery, so that the large black seeds can be dimly 

 en, while the lower half of the capsule is thick, opaque and with strongly 

 marked perpendicular veins, the upper portion finally breaking up and releasing 

 " e seeds. 



Plate 353. Fig. J , a bract ; 2, a sepal ; 3, a stamen ; 4, pistil ; except figs. 

 and 2, all enlarged. 



Plate 354. Fig. 5, a leaf ; 0, lower portion of corolla opened, showing inser- 

 of the stamens ; 7, capsule and 3 sepals, the other two removed ; all about 

 tural size. 



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