PLATE 364. 



SOPUBIA DREGEANA, Bth. (Fl. Cap. Vol. IV. p. 386. Sub. S. Simplex). 

 Natural Order, SCROPHULARIACEAE. 



An herbaceous branching plant with pink flowers. Roots thickened. Stems 

 ei'ect or ascending, glabrous, striate, 6 to 24 inches high. Leaves scattered, 

 sessile, exstipulate, linear, entire, glabrous, ^ to ly i' ch long. Inflorescence 

 terminal, racemose, flowers light pink with purple centre. Calyx bell-shaped, 

 5-toothed, teeth acute and clothed internally with long white, woolly hairs : the 

 whole calyx 2\ lines long. Corolla gamopetalous, salver-shaped, f inch diameter, 

 tube cylindrical If line long, limb 5-lobed, lobes ovate, spreading, concave, 

 margins finely and irregularly crenulate. Stamens 4, didynamous, inserted on 

 throat of corolla ; filaments curved, especially the front pair, short, deep pink, 

 anthers '-'-celled, the cells dissimilar, one large, ovate, perfect, ciliate with woolly 

 hairs, deep purple tinged with yellow ; the other divergent, stipitate, linear- 

 oblong, empty, golden yellow, the fertile cells cohering by means of their marginal 

 woolly hairs. Ovary superior, ovate, glabrous, 2-celled, many ovuled ; style 

 elongate, finely pilose in lower portion, glabrous upwards, stigma tongue-shaped, 

 obtuse. Capsule ovate, 2 to 3 lines long, seated in the persistent calyx, loculi- 

 cidally dehiscing, valves entire. Seeds not seen. 



Habitat: NATAL: Common in damp ground. Inanda, 1,800 feet, November, 

 Wood; same locality, January, Wood 313; Noodsberg, 2 to 3,000 feet alt, April, 

 Wood (in Government Herbarium, 6449) ; near Durban, 100 feet alt, August, 

 Wood ; Malvern, Miss Dean, August. 



The genus Sopubia according to the Genera Plantarum includes 16 species, 

 4 of which are South African, the remainder being natives of tropical Africa, India, 

 and Madagascar; of the 4 South African species only 2 so far as known to us have 

 been found in Natal, both of them are rather pretty plant-, and would most likely 

 be improved l>y cultivation. We cannot learn that the natives have any distinc- 

 tive name for the one here described, nor do they use it in any way. Since the 

 above was written the last Part of Vol. IV. of the Flora Capensis has come to 

 hand, and we find that the name of this plant has been changed to 8. Simplex, 

 Hochst, but it is too late to alter the name on the plate. We find also that 

 another species (S. fastiglata, Hiern) has been added to the list ; this plant was 

 collected near Pigg's Peak, in Swaziland. 



Fig. 1, a flower ; 2, calyx and bract ; 3, portion of calyx opened ; 4, corolla 

 opened showing insertion of stamens ; 5, a stamen ; 6, stigma ; 7, capsule ; all 

 enlarged. 



