PLATE 357. 



CEROPEGIA Woomi, Schltr (Eiig. Bot. Jahr., p. 34). . 

 Natural Order, ASCLEPIADEAE. 



A very slender, many-stemmed plant having leaves which are marbled with 

 dull white, and flowers which are dull pink with deep purplish tips. Glabrous in 

 all parts except the corolla. Stems very slender, decumbent, branching, filiform, 

 distantly leafy, reaching 2 to 3 feet in length. Leaves on slender petioles 1 to ''; 

 inch long, ovate-cordate or reniform-cordate, fleshy i- to 1 inch long and wide, 

 quite entire, dark green marbled with dull white above, slate colour or dull vinous 

 beneath. Inflorescence axillary, peduncles \ to J inch long, usually hearing two 

 flowers, but sometimes one only. Calyx gamosepalous, deeply 5-lohed, 1{ line 

 long; lobes linear-lanceolate, acute, tube very short, having internally at base 5 

 delicate, oblong, acute squamae, alternate with the lobes. Corolla urccolatc, i)-10 

 lines long, tube inflated and subglobose at base, 3 lines diameter ; then sud- 

 denly contracted to 1 line wide, and 2| at apex ; lobes 5, erect, and ovate- 

 lanceolate, obtuse, margins strongly reflexed, ciliate with long hairs ; con- 

 niving at apex ; deep dull purple. Corona double, outer scales connate in a o- 

 lobed cup, interior ones much larger, erect, linear-lanceolate, acute, narrowed at 

 base, reflexed at apex. Pollinia obliquely oval, obtuse, compressed, caudicles 

 short. Follicles slender, terete, 3 inches long, 1 to 1 ] line diameter. 



Habitat : GROENBERG, 2000 feet alt. February 1881, Wood 1317. Noodsberg 

 2-3000 feet alt., March, Wood. 



Drawn from a plant growing in a hanging basket at Botanic Gardens, 

 Durban. 



A very graceful plant for hanging baskets, the mottled leaves and prettily 

 coloured flowers make it very attractive when well grown. It may be propagated 

 by division of the roots, by seeds or by bulbils which are produced on the stems 

 near the base; they are subglobose and sometime attain 1 inch in diameter. When 

 first found by the writer the plant was hanging from perpendicular rocks, the 

 stems reaching to fully the length given in the description. It was afterwards 

 found at Noodsberg in shade on surface of the ground, but then the stems did not 

 reach to nearly the length given in the above description, though the plant was a 

 large one with many stems. Several other species of Ceropegia, some not yet 

 described, are found in the Colony, but for cultivation this one is probably the 

 most elegant. 



Fig. 1, a flower ; 2, calyx ; 3, upper portion of corolla ; 4, corona ; 5 

 pollinia ; 6, two calyx lobes showing squamae ; all enlarged. 



