921 
TESTUDINARIA elephantipes. 
Hottentot’s Bread. 
DILECIA HEXANDRIA. 
Nat. ord. Dioscores. ; 
TESTUDINARIA Salisb.—Perianthium 6-partitum, patens: laciniis 
linearibus subeequalibus. 4 . Stamina 6, basi laciniarum inserta. 2. Styli 
3-coaliti. Capsula membranacea. Semina alata. Herbee ramis. annuis 
volubilibus, caudice maximo rimoso. Flores masculi racemosi multiflori, 
feeminei subsolitariz. 
a ee en 
T. elephantipes ; foliis reniformibus planis apiculatis utrinque concoloribus. 
Tamus elephantipes. Ait. Kew. ed. 1*.—ed. 2«. 5.386. Willd. sp. pl. 4.772, 
Bot. Mag. 1347, 9... Pers. syn.2.618, Link. enum. 2.426, 
Testudinaria elephantipes. Burchell’s travels, 2.147. : 
Omni parte glaberrima. Caudex maximus, subrotundus, suberosus, 
cortice undique alte rimosd. Rami volubiles graciles. Folia alterna, petio- 
lata, cordata, reniformia, acuminata, apiculata, '7-nervia, avenia, utrinque 
_pallide virentia, lucida. Flores dioici, odore debili, ingrato, primim albidi, 
post anthesin lutescentes. 4. Racemi erecti, nunc axillares, nunc, ad nodos, 
oppositifolit, multiflori, internodiis longiores, minutissime puberuli, Pedi- 
celli bas? et apice bracteati, bracteis ovatis minutis persistentibus. Perianthium 
erectum, campanulatum, carnosum, limbo sexpartito reflexo:  laciniis exteri- 
oribus linearibus acutis, interioribus lineari-spatulatis retusis. Stamina 6, ad 
basin laciniarum inserta; filamentis a latd basi subulatis ; antheris anticis, 
subrotundis, bilocularibus, adnatis ; loculis septo. incompleto longitudinaliter 
divisis. Pollen parvum oblongum. Rudimentum stylt trilobum. 
. 
This very remarkable plant was first introduced by: 
the late Mr. Masson, who found it growing wild at the 
Cape of Good Hope. The plants which he sent to 
Kew having been males, the genus could not be ascer- 
tained satisfactorily ; but from the resemblance of the 
male flowers to those of Tamus, it was referred to that 
genus till the females should be discovered. Afterwards 
when that sex was produced upon a plant which flowered 
at Mr. Joseph Knight’s Nursery, the structure of the ovarium 
was considered to be the same as that of Tamus, and 
accordingly we find the female figured in the Botanical 
