25 



PLATE 273. 



Ctcnium adonense, E. Mey. (Benth. in Hook. Comp. Bot. Mag. 1 (1835) 368). 



Natural Order, SoEOPHULAEiNEiE. 



Herbaceous plant with large white flowers. Roots fibrous or somewhat 

 :fleshy. Stems ascending, usually several in a clump, compressed or subquad- 

 rangular, hispid with white glandular hairs ; 6 to 12 inches long. Leaves nor- 

 mally opposite, but occasionally alternate, sessile, exstipulate, ovate to ovato- 

 lanceolate, margins irregularly and deeply crenate or crenato-serrate, apex acute, 

 obtuse or emarginate ; tapering to, and 3 to 5 veined at base, veins prominent 

 beneath, distinct above, scabrous on both surfaces; 1^ to 2^ inches long, f to 1-1- 

 inch wide. Flowers solitary, axillary. Pedicels ^ inch long, erect, curved. 

 Calyx gamosepalous, tube cylindrical, strongly 10-ribbed, a rib reaching the apex 

 of each calycine lobe, and one ending in each sinus ; lobes 5, |^ to |- the length of 

 the tube, oblong from a broad base, obtuse, acute, or a little emarginate at apex, 

 the whole calyx IJ to 1^ inch long, pilose on the ribs externally, glabrous on inner 

 surface ; bracts 2, linear, 3 lines long, seated on calyx tube 2 to 3 lines above the 

 base. Corolla gamopetalous, tube more or less strongly ribbed, glandular hairy 

 externally, thickly clothed with reversed hairs internally, widening just below 

 throat, 2^ to 3^ inches long ; limb '2-lipped, upper lip 2-fid, lower deeply 3-lobed, 

 lobes ovate, entire, veiny, the whole corolla 2 to 3 inches in diameter, white. 

 Stamens 4, included, inserted on middle of tube, two of the filaments 3 to 5 lines 

 long, the other two very short, all pilose with jointed hairs ; anthers linear, 1- 

 celled, obtuse at apex, dorsifixed. Ovary superior, ovate, 2-celled, ovules 

 numerous; style short, stigma elongate or clavate. Capsule straight, fleshy, en- 

 closed in the enlarged calyx, and seated on an annular disk. 



Habitat: Natal: Coast and Midlands, Inanda, 1,800 feet alt, September, 

 Wood No. 50 ; near Durban, September, October, Wood ; Mount Moreland, 500 

 feet alt, September, Wood No. 8235. 



This genus contains seven species only, of which five are confined to South 

 Africa, and four of these occur in Natal, the other in Cape Colony, of the other 

 two one is a native of Arabia, the other of Abyssinia. The species are thought to 

 be parasitical on the roots of other plants, and so far as we are aware have never 

 been cultivated, though the above described species and 0. racemosum (Plate 211) 

 are quite worthy of cultivation. 0. adonense is usually found in open grassy 

 ground, and its pure white flowers are very conspicuous, but rapidly blacken on 

 being handled, the whole plant becomes black in drying as do other species of the 

 genus. It is often known as the " Mushroom flower " partly because it appears in 

 the mushroom season, and also, perhaps, it is often in the distance mistaken for a 

 group of mushrooms. 



Fig. 1, corolla tube opened; 2, ovary; 8, cross section of ovary; 4, stamen ; 

 5, glandular hair ; 6, monilif orm hair from stamen ; all enlarged. 



