Plate 93. HOODIA bainii.

Cape Province.

Asclepiadaceae. Tribe Stapelieae.

Hoodia, Sweet.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. ii. p. 783.

Hoodia Bainii, Dyer in Bot. Mag. t. 6348; Fl. Cap. vol. iv. sect. i. p. 897.

This plant, although previously figured in botanical publications, has been thought worthy of another illustration, especially as the former figures are not generally available to cultivators of South African succulents.

The first species of this interesting genus was brought to the notice of botanists in 1874 by Sir Henry Barkly, who sent specimens to Kew, where it flowered the following year. Since then other species have come to light, and we now know of seven species of the genus occurring in the desert regions of the Cape Province and Namaqualand.

The specimen figured was collected by Mrs. D. van der Bijl, Kruidfontein, Fraserburg District, in 1921, and sent to the Division of Botany, where it flowered in September 1922. The plant sends up numerous stems 9-12 inches high, and on these flowers profusely. The flowers are martius yellow (Ridgway Colour Standards) in colour, with a dark corona standing out in sharp relief in the middle of the saucer-shaped corolla. Like many other members of this group of plants, the flowers have a disagreeable odour.

Description:—Plant 6-8 in. high in the specimens seen (12-15 in. according to Barkly), bushily branched; branches 1-1½ in. thick, with 12-15 tuberculate angles, glabrous, green, somewhat glaucous; tubercles tipped with a slender pale brown spine 3½-5 in. long; flowers 1-2 together, glabrous in all parts; pedicels ¼-½ in. long; sepals 2-2½ in. long, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate; corolla in bud hemispheric at the basal part, 5-winged above, truncate, with a short central point, when expanded 2½-3 in. in diameter, cup-shaped, about 1 in. deep, subtruncate at the margin with 5 subulate or awn-like points 1½-3 in. long, glabrous, smooth, not papillate on the central part, light yellow or pale buff, sometimes tinged with pinkish or very pale purple; tube obsolete, represented by a slight depression from which the blackish corona is exserted or its margins resting upon the rim, when dried contained in a very small cup; outer corona 1¾-2 in. in diameter, cupular, 5-lobed; lobes ¼-⅓ in. long, nearly 1 in. broad, emarginate; inner corona-lobes ⅖ in. long, oblong, obtuse, closely incumbent upon the backs of the anthers and not exceeding them, dorsally connected to the inflexed sinuses of the outer corona; follicles 4-5 in. long, 4-5 in. thick, terete-fusiform, tapering to a beak, glabrous, smooth; seeds 3-3½ in. long, 1½ in. broad, ovate, flat, with a slightly thickened margin, glabrous, smooth, light brown. Flora Capensis (National Herb. Pretoria 2592).

Plate 93.—Fig. 1, bud; Fig. 2, transverse section of stem; Fig. 3, corona; Fig. 4, pollinia.

F.P.S.A., 1923.

M. Page del.