PLATE 585. 



MACKATA BELLA, Harv. (Fl. Cap. Vol. V., Part I., p. 44.) 

 Nat. Order, ACANTHACE^). 



A shrub with slender branches, bearing terminal racemes of conspicuous, very 

 pale lilac flowers with purple veins and veinlets. Leaves opposite, petiolate, 

 ovate-oblong to ob-lanceolate, with crenate, repand or obscurely toothed margins, 

 tapering gradually to the petiole where they form very narrow wings ; quite 

 glabrous and dark green above, pale and dull beneath, 3-5 inches long, 1-1^ inch 

 wide; petiole very short, compressed. Stipules 0. Inflorescence racemose, the 

 racemes unilateral, 5-12-flowered. Bracts 2, opposite, deltoid-acuminate, 1 line 

 long, pedicels short or none. Calyx J inch long, 5-parted nearly to base, the 

 segments linear-subulate ; very minutely puberulous. Corolla tubular, compressed 

 in lower half, then inflated and campanulate to throat, and a little laterally 

 compressed, limb 5-lobed, upper lobe largest, the two lateral, and two lower much 

 narrower, the whole corolla 1 J to 2 inches long, very pale lilac with purple veins. 

 Stamens 4, inserted at throat, included, two of which are filiform and barren, the 

 other two fertile ; anthers linear, 2-celled, sagittate, pubescent outside. Pollen 

 elliptical, with 3 pores, and 3 bands, which do not reach the poles. Style filiform, 

 slender, exserted, bilobed at apex. Capsule 1 J to 1-J inch long, 4-seeded, clavate, 

 subtended at base by the persistent calyx ; seeds discoid, compressed rugose. 



Habitat: NATAL. Tongaat, Sanderson, 167; Umvoti River, Adlam, (Herb. 

 Normale Aust. Af. 240; Inanda, 1,800 ft. alt., Wood 1028. 



The genus Mackaya contains this one species only, and is named after Dr. 

 J. F. Mack ay, author of the Flora Hibernica. M. bella is a handsome shrub, but 

 it has no economic value, it is found only in the coast and midland districts of 

 Natal, and does not seem to be very common. It is cultivated in Europe, having 

 been introduced from Natal in 1869, and was figured in the Botanical Magazine, 

 Plate 5797. 



Fig. 1 , calyx and bract ; 2, corolla opened showing stamens ; 3, anther, front 

 view; 4, same, back view; 5, pistil; 6, longitudinal section of ovary; 7, capsule; 

 8, pollen grain ; fig. 7, natural size, remainder enlarged. 



