154 "^HE AMERICAN MIDLAND NATURALIST 



dilated at the base, the backward prolongation less than i mm. 

 long, the apex bluntly pointed. The scape-like peduncles are slender 

 but stiff and wiry, 7-20 m. long; the cyme is open and only occa- 

 sionally corymbosely branched, but as a rule is umbellate, having 

 generally three branches, which are from a few to 12 cm. long and 

 radiate from below the central flower; the bracts are hardly 2 mm. 

 long, inclusive of the posterior prolongation and are lanceolate- 

 ovate; the pedicels are clavate and 5-10 mm. long. The sepals are 

 3, 5-4 mm. long about one third as long as the petals, ovate, obtusish. 

 The corolla is rose-purple; the petals are mainly obovate, mucronu- 

 late, 9-13 mm. long, closing again after spreading for one day or 

 some hours, withering, and at length, like the sepals, deciduous. 

 Stamens 45-100, or occasionally a few more, but most commonly 

 50-80; filaments distinct, not adnate to the base of the petals, 

 purple; anthers golden yellow. Style distinctly excerted beyond 

 the stamens about as inuch as their own average length. Capsule 

 3-4 mm. high, subglobuse, angled at the sutures, 3-, or sometimes, 

 4- valved. Seeds i mm. wide, black, almost smooth, and slightly 

 shining. 



The plant in this station has little chance of holding its place in 

 the far future which it once occupied in the past, namely, on the 

 cliff bank of the Little River. The inhabited locality is already 

 broken up into separated patches, the plant being now replaced 

 by various species which were unable to adapt themselves to the 

 formerly prevailing conditions. Talimim Mengesii is a plant content 

 with a scant accumulation of soil on the exposed naked surface of 

 the rock, sometimes establishing itself in such small quantities of 

 soil that it cannot produce a proper rootstock for the first time 

 because of insufficient protection. The accumulating soil is rich 

 in organic matter, but I have seen plants flourishing equally well 

 in pure sand, in a somewhat lower situation about an abandoned 

 stone crushing mill. The plant frequently roots between the de- 

 composing bases of xerophile bryophytes of an upright habit, 

 which form patches on the rocks, from a hand's space to a few 

 square feet, and offer a good protection for the plant's rootstock. 

 In such situations the plant grows with practically no soil. But 

 even in cases of a more upbuilt soil, this is rarely more than i cm. 

 deep. Not so content is the plant in as far as light is concerned, 

 for it is dependent on bright open sunshine, and this, under the 

 circumstances of advanced soil conditions is its misfortune in the 



