PLATE 509. 



LOTONONIS DICHILOIDES, SOND. (Fl. Cap. Vol. 2, p. 52.) 

 Natural Order, LEGUMINOS^;. 



An erect slender undershrub bearing a profusion of white flowers. Stem 

 finely and softly pilose, terete, green, 2 feet to 2 feet 6 inches high, densely clothed 

 in the lower half with short filiform branchlets, which are 2 to 3 inches long in 

 lower portion, gradually shorter upwards ; densely leafy throughout except at 

 the very base. 



Leaves subfascicled, trifoliolate, leaflets very narrowly spathulate or oblanceo- 

 late, terminal one 6 to 10 lines long, 1 to 2 lines wide, lateral ones 5 to 7 lines long, 

 1 line wide, mucronulate, pellucid dotted, minutely pilose beneath, and ciliate 

 with subdistant white hairs, glabrous above ; all more or less pellucid at junction 

 with petiole; petiole 4-6 lines long, channelled above; stipules linear, leaflike 

 equalling or slightly exceeding the petiole. Flowers white, carina tinged with 

 pink at apex. Calyx gamosepalous, 5-toothed, the teeth all subulate, the lowest 

 longest, the 4 upper ones approaching in pairs. Corolla papilionaceous, petals 

 clawed, glabrous, vexillum broadly oblong, carina obtuse. Stamens monadelphous, 

 shorter than carina, and enclosed within it. Legume linear f to 1 inch long, 

 pilose when young, mature ones glabrous or nearly, so many seeded. 



Habitat : NATAL : Coast districts and Zululand, Mount Moreland 1 -200 ft. alt., 

 Wood 958, November ; near Tugela River, March, Wood, Zululand 500 ft. alt., 

 EaygartJi (Wood 1107.) 



A rather pretty plant which flowers very profusely in the spring and summer 

 months ; it is quite a coast plant, and is sometimes found in large numbers on 

 neglected native gardens and similar places ; the flowers though to all appearance 

 white, have often a faint bluish tinge, but always have the carina tipped with 

 colour which is intensified by the yellow anthers showing plainly through the 

 semi-transparent carina. 



Fig. 1, calyx; 2, vexillum; 3, carina; 4, ala; 5, stamen; 6, pistil; 7, young 

 legume, one valve removed showing ovules ; all enlarged. 



