The flowering plants of South Africa; vol. 3Pole Evans, I. B. (Illtyd Buller)
Science
The flowering plants of South Africa; vol. 3
Pole Evans, I. B. (Illtyd Buller)
Plants -- South Africa -- Periodicals; Plants -- South Africa -- Pictorial works -- Periodicals
The _Craterostigma_ figured on the accompanying plate is known from
various localities in the Transvaal. It is also recorded from the
neighbourhood of Bulawayo in Rhodesia and from other parts of tropical
Africa reaching as far north as Arabia and Abyssinia. The genus is
mainly a tropical one, and is represented by about a dozen species,
three of which are found in South Africa.
_C. plantagineum_ is a charming little plant which would be well worth
cultivation in the greenhouse and should be easily grown. Our plate was
prepared from specimens collected by Dr. I. B. Pole Evans, C.M.G., on
the portion of the farm Rietfontein 448, near Pretoria, belonging to Mr.
J. F. Ludorf. The plants were found growing in great profusion in
shallow soil not more than one inch deep on a large quartzite outcrop.
They were in flower during November and December.
DESCRIPTION:--An acaulescent plant with a rosette of radical leaves.
_Leaves_ 6-6·5 cm. long, 3-3·5 cm. broad (the inner smaller), ovate,
obtuse, narrowed at the base, with crenulate, ciliated margins and with
the nerves depressed above, prominent beneath, glabrous above, pubescent
beneath, especially on the veins. _Peduncles_ 3 or more to a plant,
3·5-4 cm. long, terete, pubescent, bearing about 8 opposite flowers in a
raceme. _Bracts_ 1 cm. long, 5 mm. broad, ovate-lanceolate, acute,
slightly connate at the base, glabrous except on the keel, ciliate.
_Pedicel_ 7 mm. long, flat on the upper surface, convex on the lower
surface, pubescent, ciliate. _Calyx-tube_ 4·5 mm. long, 2·5 mm. in
diameter, deeply fluted, pubescent; lobes 1 mm. long, ovate, sub-acute,
ciliated. _Corolla_ 2-lipped; tube 7 mm. long, tubular; lower lip 9 mm.
long, 1 cm. broad, 3-lobed, with the lobes obovate, crenulate; upper lip
7 mm. long, oblong-ovate, bilobed at the apex. _Stamens_ of two
different kinds; those attached to the lower lip with filaments 7 mm.
long, bent at right angles below and then swollen to form two
callosities on the lip; those attached to the upper lip 2 mm. long;
anther cells diverging, those of each pair of stamens joined. _Ovary_ 2
mm. long, 1·25 mm. in diameter, ovoid; style 8 mm. long, terete,
gradually widening above, glabrous; stigma bilobed, with the lobes
broadly ovate and somewhat membranous. (National Herb. Pretoria, No.
2644.)
PLATE 106.--Fig. 1, median longitudinal section of flower; 2, front
view of flower enlarged; 3, bract; 4, calyx; 5, stamens; 6, pistil;
7, lower portion of under surface of leaf; 8, section of pedicel
snowing convex and flat surfaces.
F.P.S.A., 1923.
[Illustration: _107._
S. Gower del.]
PLATE 107.
ALOE COMOSA.
_Cape Province._
LILIACEAE. Tribe ALOINEAE.
ALOE, _Linn._; _Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant._ vol. iii. p. 776.
=Aloe comosa=, _Marloth and A. Berg. in Engl. Bot. Jahrb._ vol. 38, p. 86.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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