The Flowering Plants of South Africa; vol. 1

Plate 28.

I. B. Pole Evans

SENECIO STAPELIAEFORMIS.

Transvaal.

Compositae. Tribe Senecionideae.

Senecio, Linn.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. ii. p. 446.

Senecio stapeliaeformis, Phill. sp. nov.

Caudex 7-25 cm. altus, carnosus, 4-7-angulosus. Folia 2-5 mm. longa, erecta, subulata, emarcida. Pedunculus 2 cm. longus, simplex, monocephalus, teres, glaber. Capitulum discoideum, coccineum. Bractae involucri, 1·5 cm. longae, 1 mm. latae, lineares, apice obtusae ciliataeque. Receptaculum 3 mm. latum, planum. Corollae tubus 2 cm. longus, cylindricus, glaber; lobi 3·5 mm. longi, ·75 mm. lati, lineares, apice obtusi. Stamina inclusa; filamenta 6 mm. longa; antherae 2·5 mm. longae, lineares, apice appendice lineare instructae. Ovarium 2·5 mm. longum, glabrum; stylus 2 mm. longus, glaber, lobis 4 mm. longis linearibus. Pappus 1·6 cm. longus.

Transvaal: Lydenburg. Carl Jeppe in National Herbarium, 1272. Pruizen, Potgeiters Rust, under bushes, Burtt Davy, 2203.

The specimens from which our figure was made were collected by Mr. Carl Jeppe in the Lydenburg District, Transvaal, and flowered in the Garden of the Division of Botany, Pretoria, in September, 1919.

It is closely allied to Senecio pendula, Sch. Bip., a native of Somaliland and Arabia, but differs in the erect, angled stems.

The stems resemble those of a Stapelia to such an extent that it was thought to be a Stapelia when received, and was planted out in the Stapelia collection. This species will make a very welcome addition to the South African rockeries.

Description:—Stems 7-25 cm. long, simple, more rarely branched, thick and fleshy, 4-7-angled, with the angles compressed and toothed, each tooth tipped with an erect, slender, awl-like leaf 2-5 mm. long, withering and becoming hardened. Peduncle often solitary and terminal, sometimes there is also an axilliary one on the stem, but then only the uppermost appears to develop; 2 cm. long, bearing one flower-head, terete, with 3-4 of the subulate leaves or bracts, glabrous. Flower-head solitary, discoid, scarlet-red. Involucral-scales in a single row of 10-12, more or less concrete, 1·5 cm. long, 1 mm. broad, linear, obtuse, ciliated at the apex, brick-red. Receptacle 3 mm. in diameter, flat. Florets all hermaphrodite. Corolla-tube 2 cm. long, cylindric, glabrous, scarlet-red above, colourless below; lobes 3·5 mm. long, 0·75 mm. broad, linear, obtuse, scarlet-red. Stamens inserted about halfway down the corolla-tube; filaments 6 mm. long, filiform, becoming linear for 1·5 mm. below the anthers; anthers 2·5 mm. long, linear, blunt at the base, tipped at the apex with a linear appendage 1·5 mm. long. Ovary 2·5 mm. long, linear in outline, glabrous; style 2 mm. long, cylindric, glabrous; style-arms 4 mm. long, linear, tipped with a bristly cone. Pappus of white hairs 1·6 cm. long, distantly barbellate. Fruit not seen.

[A few years before the war a plant of this species was sent by Mr. J. Burtt Davy to Kew Gardens, where it flowered annually, but has since died.—N. E. Brown.]

Plate 28.—Fig. 1, flower (enlarged); Fig. 2, style-arms; Fig. 3, stamens; Fig. 4, cross-section of stem.

F.P.S.A., 1921.

[Image unavailable.]

29.

K. A. Lansdell del.

NYMPHAEA STELLATA WITH.

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