PLATE 664. 



Hbemannia geandistipula, K. Schum. (Fl. Cap. Yol. 1, p. 209, sub Mahernia,) 



Natural Order, Sterouliaobj!. 



A small undershrub with yellow flowers. Root woody. Stems several, erect, 

 occasionally branched near the base, terete, densely clothed with long white stellate 

 hairs, 6-12 inches high. Leaves alternate, subsessile, stipulate, oblong to linear- 

 oblong, obtuse, margins toothed or sometimes subentire, pubescent with scattered 

 stellate hairs on the veins and very sparsely so on the surfaces, ciliate with similar 

 hairs ; stipules leafy, irregularly lobed, the lobes or segments varying much in 

 number and size, and furnished with hairs similar to those of the leaves. Inflores- 

 cence in upper portion of the stem, on short 2-flowered peduncles, bracts similar to 

 the stipules, but smaller. Calyx globose, inflated, 5-toothed, densely clothed with 

 long white, stellate hairs. Corolla of 5, oblong, obtuse, petals which are equal to 

 or exceed the calyx in length; pubescent, yellow. Stamens 6, filaments cruciform, 

 caused by a thick hairy transverse tubercle above the middle, the upper portion 

 filiform ; anthers lanceolate-acuminate, 2-celled, dorsifixed. Ovary 5-celled, 5- 

 angled, ovate, pubescent, enclosed in the inflated calyx ; ripe seeds not seen. 



Habitat: Natal. Krauss 175; Sanderson; Upper Umlaas, 2,000 ft. alt. 

 Maygarth in the Colonial Herbarium 1467; Camperdown, 2,000 ft. alt., Miss 

 Franks, February. 



Of the genus Hermannia three species have already been figured and described 

 in this work, viz., H. Sandersoni, plate 20, vol. 1 ; H. Oerradi, plate 264, vol 3 ; and 

 H. malvaefolia, plate 361, vol. 4. These three plants are all true Hermannias, while 

 H. grandistipula belongs to the Section Mahernia. The word Mahernia is an ana- 

 gram of Hermannia, and was proposed as a different genus, and appears as such 

 in the Flora Capensis, the difference between the two genera being that in Maher- 

 nia the filaments are cruciform, while in Hermannia they are oblong, flat or obovate, 

 but not cruciform. It has now been decided to abolish Mahernia as a genus, leaving 

 it only as a Section of Hermannia, which is an older genus, all members of this Sec- 

 tion so far as at present known being natives of South Africa. Some species of 

 the genus bear rather pretty flowers, but none have any special or economic value. 



: Fig. 1 , a flower ; 2, petal ; 3, stamens and pistil ; 4, a stamen ; 5, pistil ; 6, 

 cross section of ovary ; all enlarged. 



