PLATE 370. 



STRIGA THUNBEBGII, Benth. (Fl. Cap. Vol. IV. p. 380.) 

 Natural Order, SCROPHULARIACE.E. 



An erect herbaceous plant with flowers varying from pale lilac to almost 

 white on different plants, the whole plant light green in colour. Stems simple or 

 often branched, reaching to 1 foot or 18 inches in height, deeply furrowed, flori- 

 ferous in upper portion of stems and branches, which are straight, ascending, and 

 leafy to the apex. Leaves linear or linear-lanceolate, acute or subacute, sessile 

 and slightly decurrent, roughly hispid with whitish hairs, ciliate, quit entire ; 

 lower and central ones opposite, upper one alternate ; floral leaves small, lanceo- 

 late, longer than the calyx, hispid-ciliate. Inflorescence spicate, the spikes elongat- 

 ing in flower ; bracteoles linear, acute, hispid-ciliate, shorter than the calyx, rigid. 

 Calyx gamosepalous, strongly 5-ribbed, and 5-lobed, inch long, membranaceous 

 between the ribs, roughly hispid on the ribs and margins of the lobes, lobes 

 equalling the tubes. Corolla gamopetalous, tube about ^ inch long, strongly curved 

 outwards above the middle, narrow and subcyliridrical below, gradually widening 

 above the bend, glandularly pubescent outside, glabrous within ; limb bilabiate, 

 spreading, upper lobe widest, emarginate, lower trifid, teeth obtuse. Stamens 4, 

 didynamous, included, inserted near middle of the corolla tube ; anthers 1 -celled, 

 obtuse at base and apex, glabrous. Ovary 2-celled, ovules numerous ; style short, 

 included, thickened at apex. Capsule obovoid, glabrous, included in the persistent 

 calyx, loc'ulicidal, valves coriaceous, entire. Seeds numerous, testa black, netted. 



Habitat NATAL: Table Mountain, Krauss; Attercliffe, Sanderson, 428 ; Inanda, 

 V\<ood, 113; Charlestown and Colenso, Krauss; near Newcastle, Wilmx, 2211; 

 Howick, Mrs. Button, 181 ; Gerrard, 43; Gueineins, 48; Ungoya, Zululand, Wylie 

 (Wood 5739) ; Isandhlwana, Pattershatt Thomas. 



The genu~ Striga contains about 30 species, inhabiting the warmer parts of 

 Africa, Asia, and Australia, all of them are herbs and most of them parasitical to 

 a greater or less extent. In Natal we have 5 well known species, and another 

 one collected by Mr. M. S. Evans on the Drakensberg is probably identical with 

 S. Junodii, collected by Junod near Delagoa Bay. The Natal species are probably 

 all parasitic on the roots of grasses, or on plants belonging to the Order Gramineae, 

 the most destructive one to the Maize crop is ?. lutea, formerly known as S. 

 coccinea, Bth. It i-. known to the natives as i-Sona, and to Colonists as " Witch- 

 weed ; " the narasitiT nature of this plant has been clearly shown by the Natal 

 Government Entomologist, Mr. Claude Fuller, in the Natal Agricultural Journal, 

 Vol. III., p. 65. Another plant of this genus, X. Forbesii, is quite as destructive 

 to the Maize crops as A. lutea, but is not so common. S. Thunbergii I have never 

 met with in cornfields and believe it to be parasitical on the roots of grasses, while 

 S. lutea, and 8. Forbesii are seldom met with outside Maize fields, or in their close 

 vicinity. 



Fig. 1, bract; 2, bracteole ; 3, flower; 4, calyx ; 5, corolla opened, showing 

 stamens ; 6, stamen ; 7, pistil ; 8, capsule ; 9, cross section of ovary ; all enlarged. 



