PLATE 362. 



GYMNOPENTZIA PILIFERA, N. E. Brown (Kew Bulletin, 1895, p. 26.) 

 Natural Order, COMPOSIT/E. 



A small shrub with yellow flowers, 1 to 3 feet high, sparingly branched at 

 base or simple. Stein and branches subterete or somewhat angular, erect, rough 

 with the clasping bases of fallen leaves, younger portions pilose, older glabrous. 

 Leaves opposite, exstipulate, crowded on the stem and branchlets, which are f to 1 

 inch long ; bilobed to the middle, lobes linear, subterete, one or both forked, 

 pilose with long white hairs at base ; 5 to 7 lines long, line wide. Infloresence 

 corymbose, the corymbs few headed on short branches or terminal. Heads 

 discoid, monogamous, shortly pedicelled, 2| to 3J- lines diameter. Involucre 

 hemispherical, of many lanceolate acute scales in three series, the scales brown 

 margined, 1 line long, the upper ones ciliate ; receptacle convex, naked. Pappus 

 none. Corolla longer than the involucral scales, tube cylindrical, minutely glan- 

 dular externally, suddenly widening in upper portion ; limb 5-lobed, lobes short, 

 subacute. Anthers bilobed at base. Style arms flattened, channelled in upper 

 portion, truncate, young achenes terete, 10-ribbed, puberulous, ripe achenes not 

 seen. 



Habitat: NATAL: On the Drakensberg, near Bushman's River, 6,000 to 7,000 



feet alt., July, Evans 51. 



/ 



Drawn from Evans's specimen. 



Mr. Brown says in a note : " This differs from G. bifurcata, Benth and Hook, 

 by its much shorter and racemosely decussate flowering branchlets, the lobes of 

 the leaves being frequently forked, the long white silky hairs which laxly clothe 

 the young shoots and leaves, the much shorter pedicels, more acute bracts of the 

 involucre, and the corolla has a longer and more slender tube, and is much more 

 abruptly dilated in the upper part than in G. bifurcata." 



The genus Gymnopentzia contains these two species only, both natives of 

 South Africa, G. bifurcata having been found on " damp rocks to the west of 

 Mount Boschberg," and upon this species the genus was founded by Bentham and 

 Hooker, and was figured and described in Icones Plantarum Plate 1,155, and in a 

 note it is said : " This plant is nearly allied to the genus Pentzia but the opposite 

 leaves almost exceptional in the Tribe, and the achenes showing at least in the 

 unripe state 12 to 15 prominent ribs instead of 5 angles indiiced me to establish 

 it as a distinct genus. The forked leaves are also peculiar." 



Fig. 1 , involucre ; 2, an involucral scale ; 3, a floret ; 4, two stamens ; 5, 

 style and stigma ; 6, a leaf ; all enlarged. 



