WAYFARING NOTES IN RHODESIA 59 



the hood looking downwards and inwards towards the axis of the 

 flower. The hood is acuminate above, the tip turned inwards, 

 those of the three anthers touching in the middle line. The 

 pollen-grains are ranged in a line just within the rim of the 

 opening into the hooded cavity. This polleniferous line is wanting 

 above. The hood protects the pollen from the rain, abundant at 

 this season (December). The walls of the cavity are probably 

 nectariferous, as flies may be seen probing it. The pollen-grains 

 are slightly sticky. 



Female floiuer. — The perianth is large and protective, and 

 accrescent in the fruit. There are three unbranched stylar arms, 

 each coiling outwards in crosier-fashion, their upper convex sur- 

 faces only being swollen and stigmatic. 



The flowers of this plant are frequented by flies, among which 

 one with an orange- coloured body is conspicuous. The capsule 

 is explosive, going off with a sharp crack when touched, throwing 

 the cocci to a distance of several yards, the cocci at the same time 

 opening to release the seeds. 



Crinum sp. (no. 228). In flower in mid-December. The long 

 perianth-tube is ballooned above into a water-tight, flask-shaped 

 cavity, pointed at the end. The flower is slightly zygomorphic, 

 there being a little bulging at the side towards which the stamens 

 lean. The anthers are versatile and black in colour. They dehisce 

 before the flower opens. The style is nine inches or more in 

 length, and straight. The stigma, like a small pin's head in size, 

 is papillose at the crown. It is kept firmly pressed against the 

 inner surface of the apex of the bud, and is thus shielded from 

 auto-pollination. It escapes as the flower opens. The effort to 

 secure a cross by a bending aside of the stamens rather than by a 

 diversion of the style, the more general case, is interesting. 



Ceropegia sp. (no. 1399). "~ A chmber, with milky juice, 

 twining around the stem of a small shrub. Flowers yellowish 

 white. Calyx dotted with dark, brownish purple spots. Corolla- 

 tube slightly hairy within along a line just above the level of the 

 cuculli. Corolla-lobes with out-turned edges uniting at their tips. 

 The eversion of the edges of the lobe forms a keel at the throat of 

 the tube, and the five keels thus formed nearly block the tube. 

 The cuculli are upright, bending slightly outwards above. The 

 anther- tips are broad and erect, one opposite each cucullus. The 

 pollinia were not seen, as the specimen was immature. Corpus- 

 culum showed two short retinacula projecting horizontally. 



Ceropegia abyssinica Dcne.t (no. 1400). Erect in habit. 

 Height about one foot. Growing beneath trees upon the kopje. 

 Leaves, stem, calyx, and its awl-like lobes, softly hairy. No milky 

 juice. Flowers erect, drooping after fertilization. Corolla aver- 



* The flo\Yers of this are too young to permit of the plant being named 

 with certainty. 



t This is a remarkable " find," since the species has been known only as a 

 native of Abyssinia. 



