The species figured is not a particularly striking one, but it is worthy of illustration, as it belongs to a group only found in the south-western area of the Cape Province.
The specimens from which our plate was prepared were collected by Mr. T. P. Stokoe on the Hottentot Hollands Mountains, where it is found growing in very damp places near Kogelberg. It also occurs in the mountains of Swellendam. We are indebted to the Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, for comparing the plant with the material in the Kew Herbarium.
Description:—Branches slender, arranged in a racemose manner above, yellowish, the young branches densely woolly, at length becoming glabrous. Leaves adpressed, somewhat distant below, becoming more crowded above, 3·5 to 6 mm. long, 1·5 mm. broad, lanceolate, with a long black mucro at the apex, convex and glabrous beneath, concave and woolly above. Flowers sessile, solitary in the uppermost leaves of the ultimate branchlets. Bracts two, 1 mm. long, ·25 mm. broad, linear, convex beneath, concave above, obtuse, glabrous. Sepals 1·25 mm. long, ·5 mm. broad, oblong, obtuse, glabrous.[{124}] Petals 1 mm. long, slightly over ·5 mm. broad, oblong, obtuse. Filaments ·5 mm. long, linear; anthers less than ·25 mm. long. Ovary 2-celled, with a single red pendulous ovule in each cell, sometimes only one ovule present; style ·5 mm. long, bifid at the apex (National Herb. Pretoria, No. 2578).
Plate 150.—Fig. 1, tip of branch enlarged, showing flowers; Fig. 2, portion of branch enlarged; Fig. 3, single leaf showing under surface; Fig. 4, longitudinal section through a flower; Fig. 5, a single flower; Fig. 6, stamen; Fig. 7, bracteole; Fig. 8, bract.
F.P.S.A., 1924.
