The flowering plants of South Africa; vol. 4

A MAGAZINE CONTAINING HAND-COLOURED FIGURES WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF THE FLOWERING PLANTS INDIGENOUS TO SOUTH AFRICA. EDITED BY I. B. POLE EVANS, C.M.G., M.A., D.Sc., F.L.S., Chief, Division of Botany and Plant Pathology, Department of Agriculture, Pretoria; and Director of the Botanical Survey of the Union of South Africa. VOL. IV.
The veld which lies so desolate and bare Will blossom into cities white and fair, And pinnacles will pierce the desert air, And sparkle in the sun. R. C. Macfie’s “Ex Unitate Vires.�
LOVER, COLLECTOR, AND MOST SUCCESSFUL CULTIVATOR OF HIS COUNTRY’S SUCCULENT PLANTS, THIS VOLUME OF “THE FLOWERING PLANTS OF SOUTH AFRICA� IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED IN RECOGNITION OF HELP MOST GENEROUSLY GIVEN.
Division of Botany, Pretoria. October, 1924.
STAPELIA FLAVOPURPUREA. Cape Province.
Asclepiadaceae. Tribe Stapelieae. Stapelia, Linn. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. ii. p. 784.
Stapelia flavopurpurea , Marloth in Trans. S. Afr. Phil. Soc. vol. 18, p. 48, t. 5, fig. 1; Fl. Cap. vol. v. sect. i, p. 969.
Representatives of this characteristic South African genus have been figured on Plates 26 and 72, and we have pleasure in illustrating for the first time in colour a species which is unique among the species of Stapelia . It differs from all the known species in having clavate hairs on the disc. The flowers, though much smaller than many in the genus, are very beautiful, and lack the unpleasant smell so characteristic of stapelias.
It is not a common species, and as far as our records go has only been collected in the Tanqua Karroo by Dr. Marloth, and recently the Division of Botany received specimens from Mr. E. Anderson, Matjesfontein. This flowered at Pretoria in February 1923, and our Plate was prepared from these specimens.
Plate 121.—Fig. 1, surface view of flower; Fig. 2, median longitudinal section of flower; Fig. 3, sepal; Fig. 4, petal; Fig. 5, outer corona; Fig. 6, inner corona and pollen sac; Fig. 7, pollinia.