Plate 101. GREYIA radlkoferi

Transvaal.

Sapindaceae. Tribe Meliantheae. Greyia, Hook. et Harv.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. i. p. 1000. Greyia Radlkoferi, Szyszy. Pl. Rehmann. vol. ii. p. 49 (1880).

An extremely ornamental shrub found in the eastern Transvaal, where it has been recorded from Waterval Onder, ’Thlatikulu and Barberton. The plant does quite well at Pretoria, where specimens have been planted on Meintjes Kop behind the Union Buildings.

The genus Greyia, which contains only three known species, was named in honour of Sir George Grey, K.C.B. In South Africa it has a very limited distribution, and is interesting botanically, as there are still some doubts as to its affinities.

In the Transvaal the plant flowers from July to October, the young leaves appearing at the same time as the scarlet flowers. The flowers are proterandrous, i. e., the pollen is shed before the pistil has quite matured, and this makes self-pollination almost impossible.

The Cape species, Greyia Sutherlandi, is commonly known as “Baakhout” or “Wild bottlebrush,” so that our plant might be appropriately named the “Transvaal Baakhout.” The material from which our illustration was made was gathered by Miss S. Gower on Meintjes Kop, Pretoria.

For a roller account of this interesting genus the reader is referred to a paper by Dr. S. Schonland in the Records of the Albany Museum, vol. iii. p. 40.

Description:—A shrub 2-5 m. high. Branches with light-brown bark, glabrous. Leaves at the apex of the branches at the side of the flowers; blade 3·5-12 cm. long, ovate, subacute, cordate at the base, with lobed margins, sparsely pilose above with curled hairs, white-tomentose beneath; petioles 2-10 cm. long, terete, glandular-pilose. Inflorescence of many inverted scarlet flowers. Bracts 7 mm. long, boat-shaped, glandular-pilose. Pedicels 7 mm. long, terete, glandular-pilose. Calyx-tube 2 mm. long; lobes 5 mm. long, oblong, shortly apiculate, sparsely glandular-pilose. Petals not all equal, 2-2·3 cm. long, almost 1 cm. broad, oblong-obovate, usually rounded at the apex, more rarely emarginate. Stamens usually 10, sometimes 8, in two whorls; filaments 2·7 cm. long, terete; anthers 1·5 mm. long, ovate. Disc cupular below with 10 or 8 arms from the rim of the cup, each arm has a peltate disc. Ovary about 1 cm. long, terete; style 1·8 cm. long, terete; stigma simple. (National Herb. Pretoria, No. 2635.)

Plate 101.—Fig. 1, leaf; 2, flower with petals removed showing disc; 3, ground plan of flower; 4, sepal; 5, petal; 6, anthers front and side view; 7, stamen; 8, pistil; 9, section through the ovary.

F.P.S.A., 1923.

K A Lansdell del