PLATES 537 AJSD 538. 



Beekhbta maoeocephala, J. M. Wood. (Kew Bulletin 1907, p. 50). 

 Natural Order, Composite. 



A perennial herb, with hard woody root, 8 to 12 inches high. Stem softly 

 hirsute with fine cobwebby hairs. Basal leaves oblong, long attenuate at base, 

 tapering to petiole, deeply pinnatifid with 10-15 imbricate segments on each side, 

 the lobes rotundate, irregular, decreasing in size towards the base, spinous on the 

 margin, spine |- to 1^ lines long. Leaves including the petiole 14 to 18 

 inches long, 3-0 inches broad, clothed with loosely attached scanty cobwebby 

 wool, and on both sides sparingly softly hirsute; petiole interruptedly lobe- 

 winged, upper lobes passing into the lobes of the lamina, the lower minute ; 

 cauline leaves 6-7, narrow-oblong or oblong-lanceolate, amplexicaul, but lowest 

 pinnatifid, the upper scarcely lobed, segments or lobes not imbricate, spinous 

 margined, from 4| inch (lowest) to | inch (highest) long, 2 inches to 5-lines 

 broad. Heads solitary on the stems, cobwebl3y wooly at base, 4 to 4^ inches 

 diameter ; involucral bracts linear or lanceolate-linear, 2 inches long by 3 lines 

 broad, pungent at apex, spinulose on margin, rigid, prominently veined ; 

 receptacle densely covered with very numerous linear-oblanceolate spinulosely 

 serrate palae. Florets yellow, numerous, rays a little longer than the involucral 

 scales, acute at apex, 4-dentate ; disk florets deeply 5-lobed, lobes linear, acute ; 

 achenes silky ; pappus biseriate, paleaceous, palae oblong, obtuse or acute, lacerate, 

 serrulate or sub. entire. 



Habitat: Natal: Hillside near Richmond in open ground 1800 to 2000ft. 

 alt., October, Wood 10,031. 



This plant is near to Berhheya latifolia. Wood Sf Evans, which was figured in 

 Vol. Ill, plate 221 of the present work, but the heads are larger and solitary, not 

 racemose-paniculate and the involucre is distinct. The flower heads are larger 

 than in any other species of the genus known to us, and so far as we know the 

 plant has only been found in the locality here given. 



Plate 537, fig. 1, upper portion of stem with flower-head; 2, ray floret, 

 upper portion removed ; 8, two stamens ; 4, achene ; fig. 1 natural size, re^nainder 

 enla/rged. 



Plate 538, fig. 1, a leaf; 2, disk floret; 3, style and stigma; 4, portion of 

 receptacle ; fi^. 1 natural sine, remainder enlarged. 



