922 LXVIII. CAMPANULACE^. 



4. WAHLENBERGIA, Schrad. 



(After G. Wahlenberg, M,D.) 



Calyx 5 or rarely 4-lobed or in abnormal flowers 6 or 7-lobed. Corolla 

 regular, campanulate or more or less tubular at the base, with as many valvate 

 lobes as calyx-lobes. Stamens free. Ovary 3 to 5-celled or rarely 2-celled. 

 Style with as many stigmatic lobes as ovary cells. Capsule opening at the top 

 looulicidally within the calyx-teeth, in as many valves as cells. — Herbs. Leaves 

 alternate or very rarely opposite or whorled. Peduncles terminal or in the upper 

 axils, often forming loose, terminal, dichotomous, leafy panicles. Flowers 

 usually blue. 



A considerable genus, dispersed over various parts of the world, most abundant in Southerp 

 Africa. The 2 Australian species are both in New Zealand, one the same as a common one in 

 tropical Asia. 



Stems leafy, simple or branched. Leaves sometimes crowded but not rosulate Iw W. gracilis. 

 Leaves all radical or crowded on very short, tufted stems. Scapes leafless . . 2. W. saxicola. 



1. W. gracilis (slender) A. DC. Monogr. Cam.p. 142 ; Prod. vii. 433; Benth. 

 Fl. Atistr. iv. 137. An exceedingly variable plant in stature, duration, and size 

 of the flowers, glabrous or more or less clothed in the lower part with rigid hairs, 

 sometimes a slender, simple or branched annual of 6in. to l^ft., sometimes 

 forming a perennial, almost woody rootstock, with numerous ascending or erect, 

 simple or slightly branched stems, leafy chiefly in the lower part. Lower leaves 

 from obovate, and under -J^in. long, to lanceolate or almost linear, and lin. long 

 or even much more when very narrow, the upper ones fewer and narrower, and ' 

 in slender varieties, nearly all linear-subulate or filiform. Flowers solitary, on 

 long terminal peduncles, without bracts, usually 5-merous, sometimes 4-me)rous, 

 very rarely 6-merous or even 7-rnerous. . Calyx-tube from ovoid to narrow- 

 oboonical, the lobes from broadly lanceolate and shorter than the tube 

 to linear-subulate and twice as long. Corolla campanulate, more or less 

 expanded, varying in size from Jin. to above lin. diameter. Filaments 

 shortly dilated at the base. Ovary 3-celled or very rarely 2-celled. — Hook. f. Fl. 

 Tasm. i. 289 ; Camparmla gracilis, Forst.; Br. Prod. 661 ; 8m. Exot. Bot. t. 45; 

 Bot. Mag. t. 691 ; C. vineiBflora, Vent. Jard. Malm. t. 12 ; C. Utto7-alis, 'L&hiW. 

 PI. Nov. Holl. i. 49 t. 70 ; C. capillaris, Lodd. Bot. Cab. t. 1406 ; C. quadrifida, 

 E. Br. Prod. 561 ; Wahlmbergia quadrifida, A. DC. Mon. Camp. 144 ; Prod. vii. 

 433; W. Sieberi, A. DC. ll.cc; TF. multicaulis, Benth. in Hueg. Enum. 75; 

 A. DC. Prod. vii. 433 ; W, simpUcicaulis, De Vr. in PL Preiss, ii. 244. 



Hab.: A coromon weed all over the colony, varying greatly in the size of both plant and 

 flower. Botanists as a rule have not separated the various forms into named varieties, yet, I 

 think, for convenience sake the very small flowered one might bear the distinguishing name of 

 var. minutijlora. The flowers are of a dirty white, and often less than Jin. diameter. 



2. W. saxicola (on rocks), A. DC. Monogr. Camp. 144 ; Prod. vii. 438 ; 

 Benth. Fl Austr. iv. 138. A glabroTTi perennial, with a tufted or shortly creeping 

 stock, rarely lengthening out into leafy branches of lin. or rather more. Leaves 

 radical and rosulate or crowded on the short stems, petiolate, from obovate or 

 spathulate to almost linear, entire or obscurely crenate, ^ to lin. long. Scapes 

 leafless, 1-flowered, 2 to 6in, high. Flowers 5-merous, sometimes like those of 

 W. gracilis, but usually more oblique and 1 or 2 of the anthers tipped with a 

 small point. Ovary 2 or 8-celled.— Hook. f. Fl. Tasm. i. 239 t. 71 ; Handb. 

 N. Zeal. Fl. 170 ; Campanula saxicola, E. Br. Prod. 561 ; Wahlenbergia 

 albomarginata. Hook. Ic. PI. t. 818; Streleskia montana. Hook. f. in Hook. 

 Lond. Journ. vi. 267. , 



Hab.: Stanthorpe. I have received from this locality specimens scarcely to be distitiguished 

 from Hooker's figure above quoted. 



