PLATE 312. 
Lorantuus precel, E. & Z. (Fl. Cap. Vol. II., p. 575). 
Natural Order, LoranrHacnAg. 
A strong growing parasitical shrub; young twigs green, with minute scaly 
ferruginous pubescence, older dark coloured, glabrous. Leaves opposite or sub- 
opposite, petiolate, elliptic-oblong, obtuse at both ends, margins entire; coriaceous, 
veins pinnate, immersed; 2 to 33 inches long, + to J4 inch wide, minutely 
punctate, almost glabrous in all stages; petiole s to 3 inch long, thickened. 
Peduncles thickly scattered on the older and leafless branches, more sparingly 
on the terminal leafy portion, 1 to 4-flowered; bracteoles obliquely cup-shaped, 
ciliate with white hairs. Calyx tubular, 2 to 23 inches long, truncate, denselv 
hirsute. Corolla 14 to 24 inches long, tube densely covered with long silky hairs, 
orange-red, limb 5-lobed, lobes linear, channelled, yellow-green, twice as long as 
tube. Stamens 5, opposite corolla lobes and inserted on them + inch above the 
sinus; filaments filiform, shorter than corolla lobes, anthers linear, basifixed, 
2-celled, cells mucronate. Ovary inferior, 1-celled, l-ovuled ; style filiform, longer 
than corolla-lobes, stigma clavate, 2-fid at apex, green. Berry oblong, tapering to 
an obtuse apex, covered with white silky hairs, and crowned with remains of the 
calyx tube, dull pink when ripe; 5 lines long, 3 lines wide. 
Habitat: Natat: Near Durban, Sanderson; Gerrard and McKen; Wood, 
January; near Dumbeni, 3,000 to 4,000 feet alt., March, Wood, No. 4467. 
Drawn and described from specimens gathered near Durban, January, 1903. 
Two species of this genus have already been figured in this work, in Vol. 1., 
plate 76, L. Kraussianus is described, and a short description given of the manner 
in which these plants are fertilised by birds; and in Vol. IIL, plate 295, L. quin- 
quenervius is figured and described. In the description of L. wregei in the 
“Flora Capensis,” the pubescence is said to be stellate, and that the pubescence is 
sometimes long persistent on the under service of the leaves. In the specimens 
gathered near Durban, the leaves are almost always glabrous, but in the specimen, 
Wood, No. 4467, gathered near Dumbeni, between Mooi River and Weenen, the 
leaves are very densely stellate pubescent, and this plant was identified at Kew as 
L. Dregei. On comparing this with Galpin’s 708, which was gathered near 
Barberton, we find that so far as the pubescence is concerned, they quite corre- 
spond, and Galpin’s specimen was named at Kew L. Vreget, E. § Z. var., with the 
remark (see also L. hirtiflorus, Kl.) a clerical error for J. hirsutiflorus. Both 
Wood's 4467 and Galpin’s 708 were parasitical on Acacias. ‘he specimen here 
figured was on Melia azedarach. 
Fig. 1, calyx and bract; 2, stamen; 3, style and stigma; 4, cross-section of 
ovary ; all enlarged. 
