PLATE 316. 
Pleotranthus tomentosus, Bth. (ex. B. M. Comm. PL Afr. Austr. 229). 
Natural Order, Labiatab. 
An imdershrub, reaching to 4 or 5 feet in lieiglit, much branched, leafy in the 
younger portions only. Stem and branches tetragonous, and deeply furrowed, 
densely tomentose, and thickly covered with sessil? or subsessile globose aml)er 
coloured glands ; upper portion dark purplish. Leaves opposite, pefciolate, exsti- 
pulate, densely and softly tomentose and glandular l>eneath, like the stem, veins 
and veinlets very pi'ominent on under surface, visible and sunk on upper surface, 
which is less densely tomentose than the under one, and without glands ; cordate 
at base, margins coarsely and regularly crenate, slightly recurved ; 2 to 3-^ inches 
long, 1^ to 2^ inches wide ; petiole ^ to f inch long, thick, and very deeply chan- 
nelled above, tomentose and glandular. Inflorescence a racemose panicle, the 
whorls 6 to 8 flowered. Calyx gamosepalous, 5-lobed, tube short, campanulate, 
upper lobe broadly ovate or subrotund, remainder lanceolate, the whole calyx 1 to 
1^ line long, pilose with jointed hairs, purple and with amber-coloured sessile or 
subsessile globose glands. Corolla gamopetalous, tube strongly compressed, widen- 
ing to throat, gibbous on upper side, limb 2-lipped, upper lip erect, 4-lobed, two 
central lol)es largest, i-nunded at apex, lateral lobes narrower and shorter, lower 
lobe entire, declined, elongate, elliptical from a narrowed base, the whole corolla 
5 lines long, lilac, the upper lip dark lined, lower concolorous, and with the upper 
lip having a few dark glands on outer surface. Stamens 4, declinate, longer than 
corolla, exserted. Filaments, toothless ; anthers 2-celled, at length confluent. 
Style 1, filiform, longer than stamens, minutely 2-fid, teeth ovate. Disk expanded 
on the low^er side into a lobe which is longer than the ovary. Nuts minute. 
Habitat: Natal: Coast and Midlands. Inanda 2,000 feet alt., May, Wood, 
No. 488 ; Botha's Hill, October, 2,500 feet alt.. Wood, No. 4775 ; near iJurban, 
March, Wood. 
This is the second species of this genus figured in this work^ the other l)eing 
P. saccatus, Plate 85, Vol. 1. The plant here described is not so lian lsome as P. 
saccatus, but is well worth cultivation. It is ornamental only, and I cannot learn 
that the natives have any distinctive name for it, nor that they use it in any way. 
Fig. 1, flower ; 2, calyx opened ; 3, corolla opened : 4, a stamen ; 5, style 
and stigma ; 6, ovary and disk ; a.ll enlarged. 
