PLATE 510. 



Xysmalobitjm ooNFtJsuM, SooTT Elliot. (Fl, Cap, Vol. IV, Sec. 1, Part IV, p. 574.) 



Natural Order, Asolepiadb^. 



An erect unbranched plant bearing flowers which are dull greenish brown 

 with darker markings. Stems erect, 2-3 feet high from a woody roofcstook, 4-5 

 lines thick, pubescent along two broad lines. Leaves opposite, exstipulate, very 

 shortly petiolate, 2-4 inches long, 1 ^-2^ inches broad, oblong to elliptic-oblong, 

 coriaceous, shortly and abruptly cuspidate-mucronate, abruptly rounded at base, 

 margins finely soabrid, surfaces glabrous, midrib thick, whitish, very conspicuous, 

 with numerous secondary veins at almost right angles to it, and a very fine 

 marginal vein. Inflorescence umbellate, umbels axillary, subsessile, many-flowered, 

 pedicels 6 to 9 lines long, minutely pubescent " sepals 3-4 lines long, f lines broad 

 at the ovate-oblong base, above which the margins are incurved, forming a 

 channelled subulate point, spreading, glabrous, sparingly ciliolate. Corolla 5- 

 lobed almost to the base, quite glabrous, lobe suberect, 4-5 lines long, 2^ to 2f 

 lines broad, oblong-ovate, obtuse with a minute oblique apical notch, margins 

 reflexed or revolute. Corona lobes arising at the base of the staminal column and 

 about half as long as it, fleshy, scarcely I line long about I ^ line broad, broadly 

 cuneate, truncate with a minute quadrate lobule at the base, and a fleshy pro- 

 minent keel at the top on the inner face, triangular when seen from above and as if 

 formed from the inflexed adnate apex. Staminal column 1^ line long, constricted 

 under the anthers; anther appendages subreniform, obtuse, inflexed upon the 

 outer part of the broad style-apex, the centre of which is produced slightly beyond 

 them in a very short pentagonal truncate column, follicles not seen." 



Habitat: Natal: Highlands, Gerrawc? 1282; Inaiida, PFbyrf 1163 (November); 

 Zululand, Haygarth (in Herbarium, Wood 11008) November; Koma, Zululand, 

 December, Wood 10840. 



This genus includes about 38 species, 9 of which are natives of Natal, the 

 remainder of South and Tropical Africa ; in general appearance many of the 

 species resemble different species of Asclepias, and it is only on dissection of the 

 flowers that they can be separated from that genus or from Pachycarpus. The 

 concluding and greater part of the above description is taken verbatim from Mr. 

 Brown's description in the Flora Capensis, the only difference being that in the 

 specimens from Zululand Wood 10,840 and 11,008 the umbels are shortly pedun- 

 culate and the sepals are flat, not at all channelled. Since the Part of the Flora 

 Capensis was published another undescribed species has been collected by the 

 writer near Van Reenen. 



Fig. 1, corona and staminal column, corolla removed ; 2, corona lobe, inner 

 view ; 3, poUinia ; 4, ovaries and style apex ; all enlarged. 



