PLATES 353, 354. 
Tromoka Saunpersiina, Baker (Fl. Cap. Vol. IV., p. 60). 
Natural Order, CONVOLVULACEAE. 
A strong climber with large leaves, milky sap and bearing pure white flowers 
which are open all the day. Stems, young ones finely pubescent, older glabrous ; 
wide climbing. Leaves cordate, margins entire, glabrous above, pubescent on 
veins beneath: main veins very prominent beneath and running from midrib to 
margin: reaching to 8 or 10 inches long and wide: petiole 4 to 7 inches long, 
minutely and sparsely pubescent. Inflorescence of few flowered axillary cymes. 
Bracts 2, oblong-ovate, cuspidate, minutely pubescent externally and finely ciliate, 
deciduous. Buds oblong-acuminate. Sepals 5, concave, broadly ovate, obtuse 
with a minute cusp, glabrous, 1} inch long and wide. Corolla funnel-shaped, 
margin entire but unequal, recurved ; 3} to 4 inches long and wide, tube sub- 
cylindrical. Stamens 5, on corolla tube at base, filaments broad, concave and 
finely pubescent in lower portion, subulate and glabrous above, half as long as 
corolla; anthers 2-celled, spirally twisted. Style filiform; stigma 2-lobed, lobes 
subglobose. Ovary 2-celled, cells 2-ovuled. Capsule globose, glabrous, # to 1 
inch diameter, seeds subglobose, black, very minutely puberulous; 4 lines 
ciameter. 
Habitat: Not known with certainty. In Bot. Gardens, Durban, cult. Wood 
No. 1635. 
Drawn and described from a plant which flowered in Botanic Cardens, 
Durban, June and July, 1904, the seed having lain dormant in the ground for at 
least 17 years; the locality where the plant was first collected is doubtful, but it 
was understood that the original plant which flowered in the Gardens for the first 
time about 1882, and died a year or two afterwards, was raised from seeds given to 
the former Curator by the late Mrs. Saunders, and we understood that she had 
received: them from the ‘interior of Africa.” We have never met with the plant 
in a wild state in Natal. In the Flora Capensis it is stated that it is the only 
South African species belonging to the Section Operculinum, distinguished by the 
“anthers being spirally twisted, and the capsule having a lid which falls. off 
when ripe.” The plant has been under daily observation during the flowering 
and fruiting season, and special notice has been taken of the ripening of the large 
capsules. After the corolla and bracts have fallen away the sepals close tightly 
and remain so for many days, then gradually opening and becoming dry ; it is 
then seen that the exterior portion of the upper half of the capsule (exocarp) has 
become quite detached and shrivelled, and has the remains of the style projecting 
through its centre, the remaining upper portion of the capsule (endocarp) becom- 
ing thin, indistinctly veiny, and papery, so that the large black seeds can be dimly 
seen, while the lower half of the capsule is thick, opaque and with strongly 
marked perpendicular veins, the upper portion finally breaking up and releasing 
the seeds. 
Plate 353. Fig. 1, a bract; 2, a sepal; 3, a stamen; 4, pistil; except figs. 
1 and 2, all enlarged. 
Plate 354. Fig. 5, a leaf; 6, lower portion of corolla opened, showing inser- 
tion of the stamens; 7, capsule and 3 sepals, the other two removed; all about 
natural size. 
