PLATE 389. 



CRASSULA STACHYERA, E. & Z. (Fl. Cap. Vol. II., p. 543.) 

 Natural Order, CRASSULAOB^!. 



erect plant 6 to 12 inches or more high. Stems herbaceous, simple 

 or more or less branched at the base, thickly clothed with stiff white hairs, 

 usually leafy to base. Leaves opposite, exstipulate, sessile, usually densely 

 clustered at base of stem, the distinct pairs clothing the stem from base to apex ; 

 ovate to oblong or subrotund, quite entire, glabrous or subglabrous on the surfaces, 

 and conspicuously ciliate with stiff white and commonly reversed bristles, occa- 

 sionally with a few similar bristles at base of leaf ; varying much in size in different 

 specimens (from 3 to 6 lines in our specimens). Inflorescence cymose, the cy mules 

 terminal, few flowered. Calyx 5-parted nearly to base, the lobes acuminate, erect; 

 bracts small, ciliolate like the leaves. Corolla gamopetalous, 5-lobed, the lobes 

 free almost to base, subspathulate, white. Stamens 5, a little shorter than the 

 corolla ; anthers 2-celled. Squamae minute, broadly truncate. Carpels 5, styles 

 subulate. 



Habitat : NATAL : Eovelo Hills, Dr. Sutherland ; near Botha's Hill Railway 

 Station, 2500 feet alt, Wood, 4629 ; Inanda, 2000 feet alt, March, Wood, 977 ; 

 Impendhle, March, Wylie. 



This plant is not uncommon in the Colony, and is usually found in rocky places 

 and under shade. In the Flora Capensis there appears to be some confusion as to 

 the species ; the leaves are said to be albo-hirsute, which is not the case with any 

 of our specimens, also that the inflorescence is disposed " either in a long leafy 

 spike, or interruptedly corymbose." This is not so in any of our specimens which 

 have been examined and verified by Dr. S. Schonland, F.L.S., and none of our 

 specimens have leaves so large as those described in the Flora Capensis. 



Fig. 1, flower; 2, calyx; 3, portion of corolla opened; 4, a stamen; 5, 

 carpels ; 6, a squama ; all enlarged. 



