PLATE 592. 



.Cbropegia oaffrorum, Schltr. (Fl. Cap. Vol. IV., Sec 1., p. 823.) 

 Nat. Order, Asolepiadb^. 



Stem twining, filiform, glabrous, sometimes several feet long, occasionally 

 branched. Leayes opposite, distant, the pairs 1 to 2 inches apart, spreadmg or 

 deflexed, thick and fleshy, linear to ovate-lanceolate, channelled on the upper side, 

 lighter coloured and with faint central green line beneath, reaching to 1 Imes long, 

 2 to 3 lines broad, acute at apex, roanded to subcordate at base ; petiole ij to 3 lines 

 long, usually curved. Peduncles lateral on the slightly swollen nodes, i to ^ inch 

 long, 2 to 5-flowered, glabrous ; bracts minute ; flowers developing: successively ; 

 pedicels I to J inch long; sepals I to 1^ line long, lanceolate-subulate with very 

 acute recurved tips, glabrous. Corolla tube 7 to 8 lines long, ovoid-inflated and 

 (in dried flowers) 1 to 1^ line diameter at the base, cylindrjc above and scarcely, 

 or but slightly widened at the mouth, glabrous and greeu with purple lines outside, 

 thinly covered with very fine long hairs within ; lobes 3 to 3-^ lines long, straight, 

 connivent-erect, connate at the enlarged tips, linear-spathulate, replicate, blackish- 

 purple, ciliate- throughout with short dark purple or violet hairs, otherwise 

 glabrous ; outer corona with pouch-like entire lobes alternating with the anthers, 

 much shorter than the staminal column, but rising to its top behind the inner 

 corona-lobes in deltoid-ovate obtuse lobes, glabrous ; inner corona-lobes connivent- 

 erect high above the staminal column, or sometimes connate into a column f to 1 

 line long, spathulate-lanceolate, flat with recurved or hooked tips, glabrous. 



Habitat: Natal. Berea, near Durban, 150 ft. alt. Feb., Wood 5376, var 

 dubia N.B.B. Delagoa Bay, Mrs. Monteiro, and cultivated at Kew. 



The specimen from which the drawing was made, and the first part of the 

 description written was taken from some plants growing in tins in the Botanic 

 Gardens, and also from stems and leaves from the place where the plant was 

 originally found, but after waiting for some weeks no more flowers, and no follicles 

 could be found, the latter and principal part of the description was therefore taken 

 from the Flora Capensis, 



So far as known to us this plant has only been observed in the locality where 

 it was first found by the writer, but a variety of it has been gathered by Mrs. 

 Monteiro near Delagoa Bay, 



Fig. 1, flower; 2, calyx; 3, corona and staminal column; 4, staminal column 

 seen from above ; 5, anther ; 6, pollen masses ; aU enlarged, 



