PORTULACACEAE 209 



Plate 55. 



(Plate 56 is facing Plate 54.) 



A. Portulacaria afra Jacq. I. Flowering twig. 2. Flower, in long, section. 6/1. 



B. Anacampserosfi lamentosa (Haw.) Sims 1. Small plant. 2. Leaf and stipules. 



C. A. ustulata E. Mey. 1. Plant (nat. size). 2. Leaf with the stipule of the next 

 higher leaf adhering to it (two views). 2/1. 



D. A. papyracea E. Mey. 1. Plant with ripe capsules, one full of seeds and one 

 empty. 2. Leaf with neighbouring stipule. 3. Leaf and stipule in long, section. 20/1. 



E. A. Telephiastrum DC. I. Flowering plant with visiting bee (Allodape quadratd). 

 2. Flower laid open, two petals removed. 3. Ovary, long, section. 5/1. 4. Capsule, 

 enclosed in persistent calyx. 5. Capsule, the pericarp splitting. 6. Capsule without the 

 pericarp. 7. Capsule, open. 8. Seed. 3/1. 9. Tip of axillary stipule. 20/1. 



Portulacaria. 



Portulacaria afra (the spekboom) grows socially in the south eastern 

 Karoo, extending right through to Kingwilliamstown ; it is also reported from 

 the Eastern Transvaal. It often covers whole hills or mountain slopes with 

 its fresh verdure, which forms a pleasant contrast to the surrounding dull 

 coloured vegetation. In the Addobush it is arborescent, up to 20 feet high, 

 often forming dense thickets. The juicy leaves are a wholesome food for all 

 classes of stock as well as for wild animals including buffaloes and elephants ; 

 hence farms with plenty of spekboom need not fear an ordinary drought. 



" Providence meant to spoil our farmers in placing the spekboom on the 

 hills of the Karoo," wrote MacOwan in one of his articles on the fodder plants 

 of the country. 



Ceraria. 



C. namaquensis (Sond.) Pears. & Steph. (P. namaquensis Sond.), although 

 till recently included in Portulacaria, is very different in habit and foliage from 

 P. afra, forming compact, rounded bushes, 3 — 6 feet high, with woody stems 

 and very small leathery leaves. 



Sections of the bark are employed by the natives of Namaqualand for 

 joining the ends of two sticks when they require a longer rod than is to be 

 had naturally for obtaining bee's honey from high cliffs. The fresh bark is 

 withdrawn from its wood as a complete tube, and this is slipped over the sticks 

 in the same way as a chemist joins two glass tubes by means of a piece of 

 rubber tubing. When drying the bark contracts and makes a solid joint. 

 Colonial name "liotnotsriem" (strap of the hottentot). 



Anacampseros. 



This genus includes two groups of species of very different habit, viz. the 

 two sub-genera Telephiastrum and Avonia. The difference is principally in the 

 stipules, which are fimbriate or formed of hairs in Telephiastrum, while they 

 are membranaceous and several times larger than the tiny leaves in Avonia. 

 In the latter section they are tightly pressed against the stem, each one covering 

 the leaf next above it ; hence they overlap like the scales of a fish, and nothing 

 of the real leaves is visible from without. (C, 2 and D, 3.) 



These specially developed stipules serve several purposes. In the first 

 instance they afford good protection to the somewhat delicate leaves against 



