Plate 26. 



STAPELIA GETTLEFFII. 



Transvdal. 



Asolbpiadaoeab. Tribe Stapelieae. 

 Stapelia, Linn. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant, vol. ii. p. 784. 



Stapelia Gettleffii, Pott in Ann. Transvaal Mm. vol. iii. p. 226, t. 13 (1913). 



Lovers of our South African succulents will welcome this 

 plate of a new Transvaal Stapelia, discovered by Mr. G. F. 

 Gettleffi. at Louis Trichardt in the Zoutpansberg District. It 

 is closely allied to Stapelia hirsuta, which occurs in the 

 Western Province of the Cape, but the flowers are larger, the 

 cilia longer, and the rudimentary leaves are more developed. 

 The illustration given here was made from specimens growing 

 on the rockeries of the Division of Botany, Pretoria, but there 

 is no record of the locality from which the original plants 

 came. In 1916 a coloured illustration of the species appeared 

 in the Botanical Magazine (t. 8681), made from a specimen 

 which flowered in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in June 

 1915, which was sent to England by Mr. N. S. Pillans. 

 Mr. Pillans' specimens came from Palapye Eoad, near 

 Mafeking. 



Description : — A succulent herb 10-20 cm. high. Stems 

 decumbent, 4-angled, velvety-pubescent. Leaves rudimentary, 

 •3-1-3 cm. long, linear-lanceolate, acute, velvety-pubescent. 

 Flowers 1-3 together near the base of the stem ; pedicels 

 velvety. Sepals velvety. Corolla 8*5-15 cm. in diameter ; 

 disc purple, clothed with long soft hairs ; lobes barred with 

 transverse yellow and purple lines, and ciliate with long 

 whitish and purple hairs, velvety on the back. Outer corona- 

 lobes 7 mm. long, lanceolate with a subulate-acuminate re- 

 curved dark purple tip; inner corona-lobes '9-l'3 cm. long, 

 subulate, with a 1-3-toothed broad dorsal wing. 



[As received from South Africa and as grown in England 

 the stems of all the plants seen are erect, being decumbent 

 only at the basal part as in other species of this genus. I 



