176 HYDNORACEAE 



Pecler states th.it at Kentani (Transkei) she has seen it a deep red. In the 

 Western Province the plant flowers in spring, the total length of the shoots 

 inclusive of the raceme of three to four flowers being 3 — 4, or rarely 5 inches, 

 hut the stem is not visible, as only the flowers appear above the surface o{ 

 the ground, generally hidden between the shrublets on which the plant grows. 



It is not known what visitors are attracted by the flowers, but from 

 analogy we should think them to be sun birds, as the pollen is very coherent. 

 the grains being white, globose and slightly three-lobed. 



Cytinus capensis. Until recently C. dioicus was the only species of Cytinus 

 known from South Africa, but in August 1910 Mr E. Dyke found the 

 original from which our figure of this new species is drawn. The locality is 

 near Zeekoe Ylei on the Cape Flats, and although Mr 1)vk.e, on learning what 

 an interesting find he had made, searched the neighbourhood repeatedly, 

 he found only one other specimen of it, also a male plant, hence the 

 other sex is not known as yet. The plant grows on the roots of Metalasia 

 muricata, not in lumps near the main stem, like C. dioicus i but as a row 

 or series of isolated shoots out of a horizontal root of the host, only the apex 

 of the corymbose racemes projecting above the sandy soil. The flowers are 

 4-merous, like those of Cytinus Hvpocistis, but dioecious and not monoecious 

 as in that species. The perianth-segments are a deep claret and have a curious 

 kind of covering, the short trichomes being lobed and divided in various ways. 



Fam. 15. Hydnoraceae (S. A.). 

 (Plate 44-) 



Fleshy root-parasites with a creeping thallus. Flowers 

 bisexual, regular. Perianth fleshy, 3- or 4~parted # , the 

 segments valvate. Stamens 3 or 4, compound, inserted 

 just below the mouth of the perianth, each one with 

 numerous vertical pollen -cells, connate into a 3- 

 or 4-lobed fleshy ring. Ovary inferior, i-cclled ; 

 stigma broad, fleshy, 3- or 4-lobed, each lobe 

 formed of many parallel lamellae, the upper ends of the 

 placentae, which have numerous ovuliferous processes 

 hanging from the roof of the ovarian cavity. Ovules 

 orthotropous, with 1 integument. Seeds numerous, 

 minute, with perisperm and endosperm. 



Two genera of root-parasites, Hydvora (Africa) and 

 Prosopanche (2 species) in the Argentine. 



The only S. A. genus. Flor. Cap. v, l, p. 4KO. 



Hydn6ra Thunb. 



* One East African species (//. abyssinica) has a 5-merous variety, ami the common 

 S. A. species (//. africana) lias occasionally a 4-lobed perianth. 



