PLATE 554. 



WOODIA VBBBUOTTLOBA, Schlechter. (Fl. Cap. Vol. 4, Sec. I, p. 561.) 

 Natural Order, ASCLEPIADEJ;. 



An erect herb, 6 to 10 inches high, occasionally branched at the base. Stems 

 a little compressed, glabrous except for a pubernlous line between the nodes on 

 alternate sides. Leaves in 4-7 pairs, decussate, petiolate, \-2\ inches long, ^-1^- 

 inch broad, ovate to oblong-lanceolate, acute, sharply apiculate, rounded to sub- 

 cordate at base, quite glabrous, very minutely scabrous on the thickened margin, 

 veins and veinlets conspicuous but scarcely prominent, petiole 1-3^ lines long. 

 Inflorescence in terminal and axillary umbels, 4-8 flowered, peduncles J-l^ inch 

 long, pedicels 7-10 lines long, both puberulous down one side; bracts 2-3 lines 

 long, glabrous, subulate, flowers green. Sepals 5, free almost to the base, equal 

 to or longer than the corolla, suberect, tapering from the base to an acute 

 apex, very thinly sprinkled with minute hairs. Corolla lobes 5, connate at base, 

 erect, 2^-2f lines long, tapering to apex, strongly incurved above, margins a little 

 re volute, quite glabrous, greenish-brown. " Corona-lobes arising at the base of 

 the staminal column, their margins ascending it as very narrow wings, 1-J line long, 

 3-lobed, erect, middle lobe lanceolate-subulate, with a very prominent stout keel on 

 the inner face on the lower part, slightly incurved and reaching to the top of the 

 anthers ; lateral lobes much shorter, linear, obtuse, very slightly falcate, quite erect 

 on each side of the central keel, with their flat sides facing each other. Staminal 

 column l line long ; anther appendages broader than long, reniform, obtuse, very 

 abruptly inflexed over the margin of the truncate style-apex ; follicle solitary 3-3J 

 inches long, j inch thick, stoutly fusiform, acute, beset with several series of spine- 

 like processes j-lj line long, glabrous." 



Habitat : NATAL : Near Camperdown, 2,500 feet alt.. October, Wood, 4079 ; 

 4966; near Umlaas River, 2,000 feet alt. October, Miss Franks (Wood 11715). 

 Also in Griqualand East. 



The genus "Woodia was established by Mr., now Dr. Rudolph, Schlechter, on 

 Wood's 4079, No. 4966 was collected in the same locality five years later, while 

 No. 11715 was collected some seven miles from where the species was first found. 

 The genus now includes 3 species, the one here described, W. mucrunata, N. E. 

 Brown, which is probably the most common, being found in Cape Colony, Trans- 

 vaal, Transkei and Zululand ; the third species, W. aingularis, is at present only 

 known from Swaziland. 



Fig. 1 , flower ; 2, portion of calyx ; 3, corolla ; 4, corona and staminal column ; 

 5, coronal lobe ; 6, stamen ; 7, style apex with anther appendages, seen from above ; 

 8, pistil ; 9, pollen masses ; all enlarged. 



