PLATE 398. 
PoLTGALA opposiTiPOLiA, Linii. (Fl. Cap. Vol. I., p. 82). 
Natural Order Polygalb^. 
A slender, sparingly branched underslirub bearing purple flowers in lax 
terminal racemes. Stems several to many from a woody rootstock, terete or 
obtusely angled, glabrous, green or tinged with pink, reaching to two or three feet 
high. Leaves opposite, petiolate, exstipulate, ovate, acuminate and cuspidate, 
rounded and cordate to subcordate at base, glabrous, green or subglaucous, ^ to 
1^ inch long and wide ; petioles up to 1 line long ; the leaf pairs ^ to 2^ inches 
apart. Inflorescence in few flowered racemes which are terminal on the stems 
and short branches, the flowers bright purple, veiny. Bracts small, lanceolate, 
purple, up to 1 line long; pedicels 6 to 7 lines long. Sepals 5, very unequal, 
three exterior oblong-lanceolate, very small, the two lateral ones (ate) petaloid, 
ovate, unequal sided, obtuse at apex, very unequal at base, purple, veiny, 8 lines 
long, by 5 lines broad. Stamens 8, united in a slit tube, anthers erect, 1-celled, 
opening widely at apex, and with a few hairs at base. Style thickened upwards, 
and bent; stigma oblique. Capsule membranous, compressed, elliptical, 
obcordate, 2-celled, dehiscing loculicidally at the edges, cells 1-seeded, seeds 
pendulous. 
Habitat : Natal : Coast and midlands. Gerrard ^ McKen, 809 ; Inanda Wood, 
260 ; near Durban, Wood. 
One species only of this large genus has been figured in this work, viz., 
P. Cajnllaris, E. M. in Vol. I., plate 83, that plant, however, being a slender plant 
with small almost inconspicuous flowers. The plant now figured is an undershrub 
reaching to two or three feet in height, and with much larger and handsomer 
flowers. It is frequently cultivated in Europe, and is well worth a place in any 
garden, but we have not seen it in cultivation in Natal. It is usually found on 
grassy hills and plains exposed to the full heat of the sun. 
Fig. 1, calyx ; 2, corolla ; 3, staminal tube opened ; 4, a stamen ; 5, pistil ; 6, 
longitudinal section of capsule ; 7, capsule ; e.vcept fig. 7 all enlarged ; fig. 7 
natural size. 
