PLATE 345. 
Lobelia (Dobrowskia) stellarioides, Bth and Hook. (Fl. Cap. Vol. III., p. 550, 
Sub-Dobrowskia.) 
Natural Order, Campanulace^. 
A weak, scantil^^-branclied plant bearing yellow flowers. Steins slender, 
angular, glabrous, decunibsnt, or ascending, sometimes branched, 1 to 2 feet long. 
Leaves opposite, sessile, or very shortly petiolate, linear, margins scabrous with 
curved, semitransparent, minute, white bristles ; distantly serrulate, the teeth often 
curved, hardened, sharply pointed, whitish, 1 to 2 inches long, 1 to 1^ inches wide. 
Flowers axillary and terminal, yellow, on long slender peduncles, which are 
sparingly scabrous like the leaves, thickly so in upper portion, and which lengthen 
in fruit to 2 inches or more. Calyx gamosepalous, 5-lobed, tube obconical, much 
shorter than the lobes ; lobes linear, o>)long, acute, 3 lines long, lengthening in fruit, 
the whole calyx scabrous externally. Corolla 5-lobed, the two upper lobes distant 
almost to ba'^e, the three lower ones connate, forming a three-lobed lip, all the lobes 
acnte, the two free ones narrowed to base. Stamens 5, filaments and anthers con- 
nate, all the anthers bearded at tip. Ovary inferior, 2-celled, many ovuled. 
Habitat: Natal: Zululand, Cooj^er, No. 1137 ; J.Sanderson; GerrardSf McKen, 
No 1438; Inanda, 1800 feet alt, December, Wood, iVo. 727; near Sydenham, 300 
feet alt, October, {Govt. Herb., No. 3769) ; N'goya, Zululand, 1-2000 feet alt. May, 
Wood, No 386G (fl. yellow); Ngoya, Zululand, 1-2000 feet alt, April, Wylie 
{Wood, No. 9329) ; also in Kaffraria. 
The old genus Dohrowslda, to which the plant formerly belonged, has now been 
merged in Lobelia. It included about 15 species, of which 5 were described in the 
Fl. Capensis as South African, and of these, two at least have been found in Natal. 
In the Fl. Capensis the flowers are said to be blue, and in the specimens collected 
in Natal they are so, but in the' Zululand specimens they are certainly yellow. A 
specimen in the Govt. Herbarium collected at Pigg's Peak, Swaziland {Galpin, No. 
1334), bears flowers Avhicli on Mr. Calpin's ticket are said to be " mauve." In 
Natal and Zululand this plant is usually found in moist places. 
Fig. 1, calyx and ovary; 2, staminal tube opened; 3, style and stigma; 4, 
cross section of ovary ; all enlarged. 
