THE SOUTH AFRICAN GERBERAS. 



243 



3260! Top of Red Hill, Oct. 4, 1896, Wolley Dod, 1800! Table 

 Mountain, Lower Plateau, 1500 feet, Jan. 1908, Diimmey, loio ! 



Undoubtedly one of the handsomest of the South African Gerberas, 

 confined so far as is known to the Cape Peninsula. There it frequents 

 the mountain slopes of Table Mountain to beyond the Simon's Town 

 ranges at elevations of 200-1500 feet above sea level, favouring the 

 crannies of rocks and preferring the white sandy soil so characteristic 

 a feature of that region. The variable leaves, arranged in rosettes, 

 are of a fine dark glossy green, from which arise the slender one-headed 

 scapes bearing heads often exceeding 3 inches in diameter, and of a 

 clear beautiful white. 



The local nature of the species may account for its absence from 

 cultivation, but it is a gem which the Gerbera specialist can scarcely 

 afford to omit from his collection. 



Gerbera leucothrix, Harvey, I.e. 521. 



Leaves oblong, cordate at the base, deeply inciso-sinuate and 

 subdentate, with revolute margins, glabrous above, persistently 

 reddish tomentose beneath. Scapes scaly, cobwebby or nude below, 

 tomentose at the summit. Involucral scales 4-5-seriate, minutely 

 tomentose or glabrate. Pappus white. 



Gerbera leucothrix was discovered by the collectors Ecklon and 

 Zeyher at the Cape, but precisely where is not ascertainable. The 

 plant is unknown to me, but Harvey, basing his remarks upon a 

 soHtary specimen, opines that it probably represents a natural hybrid 

 between G. ferruginea, of which it has the foliage and pubescence^ 

 and G. Burmannii, which it resembles in involucre and pappus. 



Gerbera Burmanni, Cassini in Did. Sci. Nat. xviii. 461 (1820), as 

 Gerberia ; Lessing in Linnaea, v. 294 (1830) ; De Candolle, I.e. 16. 

 Syn. Arnica crocea. Linn. Sp. PI. 885 (1753) ; Thunb. Fl. Cap^ 

 668 (1823). 



Doronicum pyrolaefohum, Lamarck Diet. ii. 315 (1786). 



Tussilago pyrolaefoha, Vaillant ex Lamarck, I.e. 



Arnica pyrolaefoha, Persoon Syn. ii. 454 (1807). 



Gerbera Burmanni var. Burmanni, Harvey, I.e. 521. 

 Leaves in tufts of three to twelve, ascending or laxly spreading ; 

 petioles I-3J inches long, slender, grooved ventrally, thinly white- 

 canescent, or eventually glabrescent or glabrous ; always cobwebby at 

 the base ; leaf-blade elliptic, oblong or obovate, obtuse or rounded, 

 wedge-shaped and entire at the base, ij-3i inches long, i-i finch broad, 

 fine and leathery in texture, entirely glabrous, prominently nerved 

 and reticulated on both surfaces, dark glossy green above, paler below ; 

 margin minutely or coarsely and distantly toothed, occasionally 

 subsinuate. Scape solitary, in pairs or threes, slender, J-iJ foot 

 long, glabrous or glabrescent, the scape-scales subulate, -^-J- inch 

 long, sparingly disposed. Involucral bracts, usually glabrous, purpHsh 

 towards their narrowly acuminate extremities. Flower-head 1-2J 



