Plate 48. 

 HELIOPHILA scandens. 



Natal. 



Cruciferae Tribe Sisymbrieae. 

 Heliophila, Linn. ; Benth. et Hooh. Gen. Plant, vol. i. p. 81. 



Heliophila scandens, Harv. Thes. Cap. vol. ii. p. 43, t. 166 ; Bot. Mag. 



t. 7668. 



Harvey first described and figured this remarkable species 

 of Heliophila in 1863, from specimens which he received from 

 Mr. M'Ken. The late Dr. Medley Wood sent a plant of it to 

 Kew in 1885, which flowered in the succulent house the 

 following year, and has continued to do so about mid-winter 

 ever since. From the plant which flowered at Kew a plate 

 was prepared for the Botanical Magazine, t. 7668. 



According to the Kew authorities, in the whole of the 

 large Natural Order Cruciferae, embracing about 180 genera, 

 only two are recorded as having scandent species. They 

 are the South African Heliophila and the Peruvian Cremo- 

 lobus, and the scandent habit is exceptional in these two 

 genera. 



The plant may be found in shady places amongst shrubs 

 along the coast near Durban and also at Inanda. The 

 present plate was prepared from specimens gathered near 

 Durban in July, 1914. The species is popularly known as the 

 " Bridal Wreath." 



Description : — A climbing plant. Stem brown ; branches 

 green, terete, glabrous. Leaves 2*5-5 cm. long, 1 •2-2*5 cm. 

 broad, oblong to lanceolate, tapering at both ends, obtuse or 

 acute, gradually passing into a thickened, channelled and 

 usually recurved petiole, glabrous. Flowers in axillary and 

 terminal racemes ; pedicels 1*2-2*5 cm. long. Sepals oblong, 

 obtuse ; the two lateral ones with thickened dorsal wings. 

 Petals 0*8-1 '2 cm. long, obovate-spathulate. Long stamens half 

 as long as the petals ; short stamens 4 mm. long ; anthers 



