PLATE 564. 



HERMANNIA GRANDISTIPULA, K. Schum. (Fl. Cap. Vol. 1, p. 209, sub Mahernia.) 



Natural Order, STERCULIACEJ:. 



A small underslirub with yellow flowers. Root woody. Stems several, erect, 

 occasionally branched near the base, terete, densely clothed with long white stellate 

 hairs, 6-12 inches high. Leaves alternate, subsessile, stipulate, oblong to linear- 

 oblong, obtuse, margins toothed or sometimes subentire, pubescent with scattered 

 stellate hairs ^on the veins and very sparsely so on the surfaces, ciliate with similar 

 hairs; stipules leafy, irregularly lobed, the lobes or segments varying much in 

 number and size, and furnished with hairs similar to those of the leaves. Inflores- 

 cence in upper portion of the stem, on short 2-flowered peduncles, bracts similar to 

 the stipules, but smaller. Calyx globose, inflated, 5-toothed, densely clothed with 

 long whire, stellate hairs. Corolla of 5, oblong, obtuse, petals which are equal to 

 or exceed the calyx in length; pubescent, yellow. Stamens 5, filaments cruciform, 

 caused by a thick hairy transverse tubercle above the middle, the upper portion 

 filiform ; anthers lanceolate-acuminate, 2-celled, dorsifixed. Ovary 5-celled, 5- 

 angled, ovate, pubescent, enclosed in the inflated calyx ; ripe seeds not seen. 



Habitat: NATAL. Krauss 175; Sanderson; Upper Umlaas, 2,000 ft. alt. 

 Haygarth in the Colonial Herbarium 1467; Camperdown, 2,000 ft. alt., Miss 

 Franks, February. 



Of the genus Herrnannia three species have already been figured and described 

 in this work, viz., H. Sandersoni, plate 20, vol. 1 ; H. Gerradi, plate 264, vol 3 ; and 

 H. tnalvaefolia, plate 361, vol. 4. These three plants are all true Hermannias, while 

 H. grandistipula belongs to the Section Mahernia. The word Mahernia is an ana- 

 gram of Hermannia, and was proposed as a different genus, and appears as such 

 in the Flora Capensis, the difference between the two genera being that in Maher- 

 nia the filaments are cruciform, while in Hermaunia they are oblong, flat or obovate, 

 but not cruciform. It has now been decided to abolish Mahernia as a genus, leaving 

 it only as a Section of Hermannia, which is an older genus, all members of this Sec- 

 tion so far as at present known being natives of South Africa. Some species of 

 the genus bear rather pretty flowers, but none have any special or economic value. 



Fig. 1, a flower; 2, petal; 3, stamens and pistil; 4, a stamen; 5, pistil; 6, 

 cross section of ovary ; all enlarged. 



