PLATE 530. 



MURALTIA LANCIFOLIA, Harv. (Fl. Cap. Vol. I, p. 108). 

 Natural Order POLTGALE^E. 



Root woody ; Stems numerous, slender, leafy to base, pubescent especially in 

 upper portion, terete, 8 to 14 inches long. Leaves fascicled, linear to lanceolate, 

 acuminate, mucronate, the mucro brownish and seraitransparent; very minutely 

 gland-dotted, glabrous, margins minutely arid distantly scabrous; 3-6- lines long, 

 -|-f-line wide. Flowers pink, axillary, usually solitary, subsessile; Sepals 5, 

 linear-lanceolate, acuminate, ciliate, 1-line long. Petals 3, unequal, broadly 

 linear, the lowest largest and hood-shaped; united at base ; the whole corolla 

 3-J lines long. Stamens 8, united in a split tube, and attached to base of corolla, 

 anthers oblong, 1 -celled, dehiscing by an apical pore. Ovary superior, 4-horned, 

 2-celled, cells I -ovuled. Style 1 , thickened upwards. Capsule not seen. 



Habitat: NATAL: On the Tafelberg, Krauss ; Sanderson; Krantzkloof 1800 

 feet alt., Wood, 1107, October; Zwartkop 3-4000 feet alt., February, Wylie (Wood 

 10,271); without precise locality Gerrard fy McKen 1494 (Government Herbarium 

 14). 



The genus Muraltia includes about 70 species natives of South Africa, of 

 which according to the " Revised List of the Flora of Natal " 5 only are known 

 from Natal. M. lancifolia is not uncommon in the midlands and upper districts 

 of the colony, and is always found in open ground ; the root is thick and woody, 

 sending up numerous stems which reach from 8 to 16 inches in height and bear 

 flowers for about two thirds of their length. A variety with white flowers, Wood 

 1 1480 from near Grillitt's, was gathered in October. 



Fig. 1, plant natural size ; 2, flower; 3, calyx ; 4, corolla opened; 5, stamens; 

 6, pistil ; 7, cross section of ovary ; all enlarged. 



