CEROPEGIA MEYERI.

Cape Province, Transvaal, Natal.

Asclepiadaceae. Tribe Ceropegieae.

Ceropegia, Linn.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. ii. p. 779.

Ceropegia Meyeri, Decne. in DC. Prodr. vol. viii. p. 645; Fl. Cap. vol. iv sect. 1, p. 828.

This species was first collected by DrÈge between the Bashee River and Morley, in Tembuland, about the year 1831, but the species has been found by several collectors since then. Its altitudinal range of distribution is wide, as it has been recorded by the late Dr. Wood from the sub-tropical climate of Durban and from Oliver’s Hoek Pass on the Drakensbergen, which is occasionally covered with snow in the winter months. The plant is a very ornamental twiner, easily cultivated, and well worth the attention of horticulturists. The accompanying illustration was made from specimens growing in the garden of the Natal Herbarium at Durban.

Description:—Rootstock a flattened tuber. Stem herbaceous, twining, up to 10 metres long, pubescent. Leaves petioled; lamina 1·7-2·8 cm. long, 3-5·9 cm. broad, cordate-ovate or lanceolate-ovate, acute, somewhat acuminate, cordate or rounded at the base, more or less pubescent or rarely subglabrous on both sides, with the margins variously toothed or lobed. Petiole 1-4 cm. long, pubescent. Inflorescence 2-4-flowered, cymose, sessile or subsessile at the nodes. Pedicels 0·6-1·1 cm. long, villous. Sepals 8-11 mm. long, 1 mm. broad at the base, subulate, pubescent. Corolla-tube whitish at the lowermost third, streaked with purple lines above, 2·5-3·1 cm. long, bottle-shaped, inflated and cylindric-oblong in the basal two-thirds, and narrowed into a cylindric neck above, then abruptly dilated at the mouth, glabrous without and within except at the throat; lobes almost black, connate at the tips, 1-1·2 cm. long, 3 mm. broad at the base, linear, pilose, with reflexed margins. Outer corona-lobes white, ascending, 1 mm. long, deltoid, acute, glabrous; inner corona lobes connivent at the base, then slightly divergent, and again connivent at the tips, white above, black below, 2 mm. long, linear or slightly spathulate-linear, obtuse. Follicles erect, sub-parallel, 8-10 cm. long, tapering into a beak, glabrous.