PLATE 598, 



OBTHOSIPHON WILMSII, Guerke. (Fl. Cap. Vol. V., Sect. II., Part II., page 255.) 



Nat. Order, LABIATE. 



A perennial plant 6 to 12 inches in height. Stems simple or branched, many 

 from a woody rootstock, quadrangular, puberulous with minute white curved hairs. 

 Leaves opposite, spreading, petiolate, exstipulate, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 

 tapering gradually to the petiole, sharply and irregularly serrate or subentire, 

 gland dotted, minutely pubescent on the veins beneath, and sparsely ciliate with 

 similar hairs; blades J to 1 J inch long, 3 to 8 lines wide; petiole 1 to 5 lines long, 

 puberulous like the stem. Inflorescence racemose, the racemes terminal on the 

 stems and branches, 1J to 5 inches long, the whorls \ to f inch apart, 6-flowered; 

 bracts ovate, acute, or apiculate, f to 1 \ line long, purplish, sessile or minutely 

 stalked, margins minutely ciliate, otherwise glabrous. Pedicels 1 to 2 lines long, 

 minutely pubescent. Calyx gamosepalous, densely pubescent externally, purplish, 

 5-toothed, the upper tooth much the largest, tube subcampanulate, many-nerved, 

 the upper tooth ovate, obtuse, lateral ones shortly acute, lower pair acuminate, 

 longer than the others, the whole calyx 2 to 3 lines long, lengthening in fruit. 

 Corolla 2-lipped, much longer than the calyx, upper lip entire, lower 4-fid, densely 

 pubescent. Stamens 4, included, the upper pair inserted at throat, lower pair at 

 base of lower lip ; anthers 1 -celled, style filiform, minutely bi-fid. 



Habitat : NATAL. Sydenham, 500 ft. alt. September, Wood853&; Camper- 

 down 2,000 ft. alt. November, Wood 4963 ; same locality, Miss Franks in Herb. 

 Wood 11972. 



The genus Orthosiphon includes more than 150 species natives of Tropical 

 and South Africa, Madagascar, Socotra, Arabia, the Malay Archipelago and 

 Australia, and are annual or perennial herbs. In South Africa we have 28 species, 

 nine of which have been found in Natal. In the Flora Capensis '29 species have 

 been described, but it has since been found that 0. concinnus, Berg, is identical 

 with 0. Wilmsii, here described, specimens of both are in our herbarium, the fact of 

 the species being identical was suspected by Mr. N. E. Brown at Kew, and was 

 afterwards confirmed by the discovery here of a specimen of Wood's -1963, collected 

 near Camperdown in 1893, and a fresh collection of the plant by Miss Franks in 

 1911. 



Fig. 1, calyx ; 2, same, opened ; 3, corolla ; 4, same, opened ; 5, disk and 

 pistil ; 6, fruiting calyx ; all enlarged. 



