CLERODENDRON TRIPHYLLUM.

Transvaal, Orange Free State, Natal, Zululand.

Verbenaceae. Tribe Viticeae.

Clerodendron, Linn.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. ii. p. 1155; Fl. Cap. vol. v. sect. 1, p. 220.

Cyclonema triphyllum, Harv. Thes. Cap. vol. i. p. 17, t. 27.

One of the charming spring plants found on the High Veld of the Transvaal and especially abundant after early winter veld fires. The corolla is of the same deep blue seen in many species of Lobelia, and the colour of the flowers makes the plant a conspicuous object in the veld. Our illustration was made from specimens collected by Dr. I. B. Pole Evans at Kaalfontein, between Pretoria and Germiston.

Description:—A low undershrub 12-60 cm. high. Stems erect from an underground woody rootstock, angular, striate, usually puberulous at the nodes, glabrous when mature. Leaves in whorls of 3 or 4, or opposite, sessile, 1·3-6 cm. long, 2-1·3 cm. broad, lanceolate or occasionally linear, acute or subacute, narrowed at the base, entire, glabrous, gland-dotted beneath. Inflorescence a 1-3-flowered pedunculate axillary cyme. Peduncles up to 2·6 cm. long, with 2 opposite lanceolate bracts near the summit. Flowers pedicellate. Calyx 3-7·5 mm. long, campanulate, 5-lobed, 5-ribbed, glabrous, with a tube equalling or slightly exceeding the ovate acute segments. Corolla deep chicory-blue to royal purple (R.C.S.); tube 3-7·5 mm. long, bent, villous or glabrous at the throat; 4 upper lobes unequal, obliquely obovate or elliptic, obtuse; lower lobes obovate or oblong, exceeding the upper. Stamens glabrous. Fruit a 1-2-seeded drupe, 1-1·8 cm. long, 9-1·3 cm. in diameter, ovoid, smooth.