PLATE 337 
Eeiosema salignum, E. Meyer. (Fl. Cap. Vol. II, p. 261.) 
Natural Order, Leguminos^. 
A tall, slender plant growing in open grassy land. Stems one or more, 6 to 
1 8 inclies liigli, often branched at base, furrowed, covered with soft white silky 
hairs. Leaves alternate, petiolate, stipulate, trifoliate, linear-lanceolate, acute, 
rounded at base, margins cpiite entire, veins prominent beneath ; green and glabrous 
above, densely clothed with white silky hairs beneath; 1^ to 4 inches long, 4 to 8 
lines wide; common petiole '2 to 3 lines long, secondary petioles shorter; all silky 
pubescent ; stipules linear-lanceolate ^ to f inch long, striate, brown, thinly pilose 
with Avhite hairs. Inflorescence racemose, racemes axillary and terminal, florifer- 
ous beyond the middle, the flowers strongly deflexed. Peduncles 2 to 6 inches 
long, pedicels very short. Calyx campanulate, 5-fid, lol)es sub-equal, longer than 
the tube, long acuminate, pilose and glandular externally, 2^ lines long. Corolla 
papilionaceous; vexillum, with inflexed auricles at base, strongly reflexed, thrice 
longer thaii the calyx, pilose and glandular like the calyx, ^^ellow on inner surface, 
brownish red externally ; alae oblong, clawed, auricled at base, a little shorter than 
the vexillum, yellow ; carina oblong, broader and a little shorter than the vexillum, 
yellow. Stamens 10, diadelphous, vexillary stamen free to l^ase ; anthers similar. 
Ovary sessile, densely pilose ; style filiform, strongly and abruptly curved in the 
middle, and conspicuously thickened at the curve ; glabrous ; stigma minute, capi- 
tate. Legumes deflexed, broadly oblong, oblique, subsessile, apiculate, compressed, 
densely pilose, 2-seeded, seeds oblong, attached at the end of the linear hilum, 
minutely spotted, 2-| lines long, 2 lines wide. 
Habitat: Natal: Coast and midlands, common ; Inanda, 1800 feet alt. Wood, 
No. 452 ; near Durban; January, Wood. 
A very common plant in coast and midland districts, and probabl? in the upper 
district also; it is always found on giassy hills fully exposed to the sun's rays, and 
though a slender plant wirh few and distant leaves, their silvery under surface 
renders the plant very conspicuous. Another species of this genus, Eriosema 
parvifloru'm, S, Meyer was figured and described in this work. Vol. I, plate 91. 
Fig. 1 calyx opened ; 2, vexillum ; 3, carina ; 4, ala ; 5, staminal tube opened ; 
6, ovary, style and stigma ; 7, legumes ; 8, legume opened ; except fig. 7, all 
enlarged. 
