PLATE 364. 
Sopunia Dreceana, Bth. (Fl. Cap. Vol. IV. p. 386. Sub. 8. Simplex). 
Natural Order, ScRoPHULARIACEAE. 
An herbaceous branching plant with pink flowers. Roots thickened. Stems 
erect or ascending, glabrous, striate, 6 to 24 inches high. Leaves scattered, 
sessile, exstipulate, linear, entire, glabrous, 4 to 14 inch long. Inflorescence 
terminal, racemose, flowers light pink with purple centre. Calyx bell-shaped, 
5-toothed, teeth acute and clothed internally with long white, woolly hairs: the 
whole calyx 23 lines long. Corolla gamopetalous, salver-shaped, 2 inch diameter, 
tube cylindrical 12 line long, limb 5-lobed, lobes ovate, spreading, concave, 
margins finely and irregularly crenulate. Stamens 4, didynamous, inserted on 
throat of corolla; filaments curved, especially the front pair, short, deep pink, 
anthers 2-celled, the cells dissimilar, one large, ovate, perfect, ciliate with woolly 
hairs, deep purple tinged with yellow; the other divergent, stipitate, linear- 
oblong, empty, golden yellow, the fertile cells cohering by means of their marginal 
woolly hairs. Ovary superior, ovate, glabrous, 2-celled, many ovuled; style 
elongate, finely pilose in lower portion, glabrous upwards, stigma tongue-shaped, 
obtuse. Capsule ovate, 2 to 3 lines long, seated in the persistent calyx, loculi- 
cidally dehiscing, valves entire. Seeds not seen. 
Habitat: Natau: Common in damp ground. Inanda, 1,800 feet, November, 
Wood; same locality, January, Wood 313; Noodsberg, 2 to 3,000 feet alt, April, 
Wood (in Government Herbarium, 6449); near Durban, 100 feet alt, August, 
Wood; Malvern, Miss Dean, August. 
The genus Sopubia according to the Genera Plantarum includes 16 species, 
4 of which are South African, the remainder being natives of tropical Africa, India, 
and Madagascar; of the 4 South African species only 2 so far as known to us have 
been found in Natal, both of them are rather pretty plant:, and would most likely 
be improved by cultivation. We cannot learn that the natives have any distine- 
tive name for the one here described, nor do they use it in any way. Since the 
above was written the last Part of Vol. IV. of the Flora Capensis has come to 
hand, and we find that the name of this plant has been changed to S. Simplea, 
Hochst, but it is too late to alter the name on the plate. We find also that 
another species (S. fastiglata, Hiern) has been added to the list; this plant was 
collected near Pigg’s Peak, in Swaziland, 
Fig. 1, a flower; 2, calyx and bract; 3, portion of calyx opened; 4, corolla 
opened showing insertion of stamens; 5, a stamen; 6, stigma; 7, capsule; all 
enlurged. 
