Holmskioldia speciosa, Hutchinson et Corbishley in Kew Bull. 1920, p. 332, Fig. 1.
This beautiful and showy plant was first collected by Dr. I. B. Pole Evans at Komati Poort in November, 1917, and specimens sent to Kew were reported to be an undescribed species of the genus. Sir Wm. Hoy, the General Manager of the South African Railways, presented two living specimens to the Division of Botany, Pretoria, and our plate was prepared from these plants when they flowered.
The plant is a large bush 10-20 ft. high, and when in full bloom is one of the most conspicuous objects in the veld. The calyx in this species very soon becomes almost fully developed, and the young corolla is at first only visible as a minute ball at the base of the saucer-shaped calyx.
Holmskioldia is a small genus with a curious distribution. A handsome species, H. sanguinea, Retz, occurs in the foothills of the Himalaya mountains of India at an altitude of 3000-5000 ft. H. tettensis, H. spinescens, and H. mucronata, Vatke, are found in the basin of the Lower Zambesi and Shire Rivers, and there is an unnamed species in Madagascar. The genus is very closely related to Clerodendron, largely represented in all these areas.
Description:—Branchlets woody, terete, shortly and softly pubescent, marked with pale lenticels; internodes about 2 cm. long. Leaves broadly ovate, triangular at the apex, broadly wedge-shaped at the base, 2·5-4 cm. long, 2-3 cm. broad, coarsely crenate, with few (about three) rounded teeth, very shortly setulose above, paler below and conspicuously glandular and shortly pubescent; lateral nerves about three on each side of the midrib; petiole 7 mm. long, densely pubescent. Flowers few, arranged in axillary cymes about 4 cm. long; peduncles slender, softly pubescent; lower bracts more or less leafy, spathulate-obovate, up to 7 mm. long; pedicels up to 1·2 cm. long, with two small opposite linear bracteoles above the middle. Calyx pink-coloured, gradually enlarging, broadly top-shaped, glandular-pubescent outside; tube 1 cm. long, with broadly rounded lobes, the latter rigidly membranous in the fruiting stage and expanding to 2·5 cm. Corolla purple, 2-2·5 cm. long, glandular and softly pubescent outside; tube up to 1·5 cm. long. Stamens long exserted; filaments glabrous. Ovary hairy in the upper part; style a little longer than the stamens, slender, glabrous. Fruit truncate, 4-horned, included by the accrescent calyx.—J. Hutchinson.
Plate 49.—Fig. 1, calyx; Fig. 2, corolla bud; Fig. 3, stamen; Fig. 4, pistil; Fig. 5, young fruit.
F.P.S.A., 1922.