PLATE 506. 



SANDEBSONIA AURANTIACA, HOOK. (Fl. Capensis Vol. VI, p. 527.) 

 Natural Order, 



Rootstock tuberous, various in shape, usually terete, from 1 to 3 inches long. 

 Stem erect, simple, 1 to 2 feet long, leafy to apex, except for a short distance from 

 the base. Leaves alternate, ascending and recurved, sessile, lanceolate or lanceolate- 

 oblong, margins recurved ; quite glabrous, midrib prominent beneath, with two 

 less prominent lateral veins ; 2 to 5 inches long, to 1 inch broad. Flowers 

 solitary from axils of the upper leaves, on cernuous slender pedicels, ^ to 2 inches 

 long. Perianth gamophyllous, orange red, f to 1 inch long, urceolate, persistent, 

 with 6 very short triangular segments, the much dilated tube furnished at the 

 base, with 6 short saccate spur-like projections. Bracts none. Stamens 6, 

 hypogynous, much shorter than perianth, filaments filiform, shorter than the 

 ovary; anthers versatile, dehiscing extrosely. Ovary superior, oblong, 3-lobed, 

 2-3-lines long, 3-celled, ovules many, superposed. Style cylindrical, 3 lines long, 

 3-lobed, lobes linear, recurved, stigmatose internally. Fruit not seen by us. 



Habitat : NATAL : Inanda, 1800 ft. alt., Wood 459 ; Lower Tugela, November, 

 Wood 10,122. Sutherland, Sanderson, Gerrard 527, 



This genus contains one species only which is confined to South Africa, and 

 has been noted in Griqualand East, and Pondoland as well as in Natal. It is 

 usually found in open ground, and generally in the same districts as Littonia 

 modesta, Hook (Plate 507) which plant, however, has a much wider range. The 

 genus is named after the late John Sanderson, an old and respected Durban 

 colonist, who was at one time editor and proprietor of the Colonist, and who 

 collected and sent to Europe many specimens of the Natal Flora, most of them at 

 that time rare and many new to science. 



Fig. 1, a flower with portion of perianth removed to show the stamens and 

 pistil ; 2, pistil ; 3, cross section of ovary ; all enlarged. 



