LXX. 
ERODENDRUM TENAX. 
x Tough Erodendrum. 
Ordinem Naturalem et Characterem Generis vide sub No. 67. 
| ; 
# Flores terminales. 
E. foliis 7-9 lineas latis, 5-6 pollices longis, lanceolato-spatulatis, mucronatis apice mox sphace- 
lato, subpunctatis, adultis levibus, evidenter nervosis : racteis involucri exquisite sericeis 
ciliatisque, ultimis perangustis. 
Sponte nascentem in Hottentot’s Holland, tegit J. Niven. 
Floret apud nos a Februario in Maium. 
Thave long had a suspicion that many plants of this genus both here and at the Cape, are 
~ hybrid or mules from a defect in their stigma, which though it retains the pollen for a long period 
in those grooves so well shewn by Mr. Hooxer in his dissections of the Amplesicaule, 1 have 
constantly found dry without any secreting surface. It may however at last exsude the liquid 
necessary to imbibe the contents of the pollen, and if so this accounts for the great number of 
species. ‘ 
The present shrub is nearly allied to the Longifolium figured in our 37 number, and is also 
from the Clapham collection: but I cannot regard it as a variety, for exclusive of the great dif- 
ference in the foliage, the bractes of the Involucrum are more silky and the last series of them 
exceedingly narrow: nor is the adult plant even totally destitute of pubescence. : 
Stem very tough, pale green tinged withred. Leaves grey, not olive-coloured as in the Longi- 
nerve very thick and conspicuous, by which it may also 
‘ be distinguished from the Longifolium. Fasciculus of flowers erect, two inches or more in diame- 
ter. Bractes of the Involucrum yellowish green tinged with red, the upper ones spatulate, ob- 
tuse, minutely silky and ciliated. Petals in the specimen sent to me had been all expanded _— 
days, and were pale yellow. en pale ochre colour, Stigma exceedingly narrow, with only 
4 grooves perceptible through a single 1 nS. : 
