PLATE 399. 



BAUHINIA TOMENTOSA, Linn. (Fl. Cap. Vol. 2, p. 275). 

 Natural Order LBGUMINOS.E. 



A handsome shrub bearing large sulphur-yellow flowers, the upper petal 

 having a deep claret coloured blotch at the base inside. Stem erect, much 

 branched, bark light coloured, glabrous. Leaves alternate, petiolate, stipulate, 

 rather broader than long, subcordate at base, cleft nearly or quite half way down 

 into two obtuse lobes, the central vein excurrent as a slender mucro, margins 

 quite entire ; 7-veined at base, dark green and glabrous above, pale and finely 

 pubescent beneath ; stipules linear, 4 lines long, soon deciduous. Inflorescence 

 axillary, the flowers usually in pairs, occasionally 1 to 3, peduncles f to 1 inch long, 

 pedicels 1 to 1 \ inch long, with 3 linear, very deciduous bracteoles | inch long. 

 Calyx limb spathaceous, entire or 1 to 3-fid, f inch long and wide at the broadest 

 part, at first erect, afterwards strongly reflexed, tube short, subcylindrical ; disk 

 reaching mouth of calyx tube. Petals 5, sub-equal, ovate, entire, yellow, veiny, 

 the upper with a large dark claret coloured blotch with serrated margins at its 

 base inside. Stamens 10, free to base, unequal, strongly curved at apex, all fertile, 

 anthers slitting. Style curved, a little longer than the stamens, included ; stigma 

 capitate, and faintly 2-lobed. Legume strongly compressed, flat, margined, 

 crowned by base of the persistent style, 8 to 10 seeded. 



Habitat : NATAL : Bluff, round edge of the Bay, Wood : Umkomaas, McKen. 



A very handsome flowering shrub not uncommon in cultivation. Also a 

 native of Asia and tropical Africa. In Natal it has been found on the South coast 

 only ; we know of no record of its having been collected on the Durban side of 

 the Bay, and had it been there it could scarcely have been missed, as its large 

 flowers are very conspicuous, and it remains in flower for a considerable time. 



The genus Bauhinia includes according to the Genera Plantarum about 1 50 

 species widely dispersed in tropical regions ; the generic name Bauhinia is in 

 honour of two botanists, John and Caspar Bauhin, who lived in the sixteenth 

 century. 



Fig. i, peduncle with young buds, showing bracts; 2, flower with petals 

 removed; 3, calyx; 4, stamen, front view; 5, same, back view; 6, pistil; 7, 

 stigma ; all enlarged. 



