108 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



each interval between two calycinal lobes. The latter are five in 

 number in the species of which the genus Lasiosiphon has been made, 

 and four in Gnidia proper, whose perianth often separates circularly 



Lachncea rosea. 



Laelmasa rosea. 



Fig. 74. noriferous branch. Fig. 76. Long. sect, of flower (4). 



above the ovary. The latter is generally surrounded at the base by 



a hypogynous disk of very variable dimensions. Gnidia has alter- 

 nate or opposite leaves and flowers generally 

 collected in terminal capitules surrounded 

 by an involucre of imbricated floral leaves ; 

 more rarely they are axillary, solitary or 

 grouped in spikes. They inhabit India, 

 Madagascar and especially tropical eastern 

 and southern Africa. Lachncea (fig. 74-77), 

 all natives of southern Africa, has always 

 tetramerous flowers and eight stamens, four 

 of which may be sterile; but, what is 

 remarkable, these flowers are sometimes 

 regular and sometimes irregular, with 

 such transitions between the one form 



and the other, that it is quite impossible to divide the genus. 



The gynsscmm is destitute of hypogynous scales, and those 



Fig. 76. Flower (f) 



