Plate 146.
Reading edition
PELARGONIUM PULVERULENTUM. Cape Province, Natal.
Geraniaceae. Tribe Pelargonieae. Pelargonium, L’Herit.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. i. p. 273.
Pelargonium pulverulentum, Colv. in Sw. Ger. t. 218; Fl. Cap. vol. i. p. 272.
This species of Pelargonium, according to the late Dr. J. Medley Wood, was first found in Natal in 1878, and was not met with again until 1914, when it was found on the south coast near the sea. It had previously been recorded from the eastern districts of the Cape Province by Ecklon and Zeyher, Drège and Burke. The species belongs to the section Polyactium of the genus, and should be compared with Pelargonium crassicaule, which we figured on Plate 52.
The white powdery pubescence, mentioned by Sweet as covering the young leaves, has not been noticed in the Natal plants.
Our illustration was made and the description drawn up from specimens collected at Merebank, Natal.
Description:—Stem short, thick, woody. Leaves petioled; petioles 3·1 to 7·5 cm. long, hispid; lamina 6·5 to 8·1 cm. long and broad, cordate, obtuse, somewhat lobed, with the lobes rounded and irregularly and sharply serrate, 5-veined at the base, glabrous above, hispid with minute short hairs beneath, more thickly on the margins; stipules broadly ovate, acute, ciliate. Inflorescence an umbel of 6 to 12 flowers. Peduncle up to 20 cm. long, hispid. Bracts 3 to 4·5 cm. long, oblong, acute, hispid, ciliate. Sepals 5, oblong-lanceolate, acute, densely and minutely hispid, shorter than the petals. Petals 5, rather unequal, 1 to 1·2 cm. long, obovate, yellowish-white with a purple blotch. Stamens 10, monadelphous, unequal; 6 stamens fertile; the remainder without anthers, of these 3 are short and subulate and 1 broad and acute. Stigmas 5, filiform. Fruit not seen.
Plate 146.—Fig. 1, calyx; Fig. 2, longitudinal section of the flower showing the monadelphous stamens; Fig. 3, petals; Fig. 4, stamens; Fig. 5, pistil; Fig. 6, cross-section through the ovary.
F.P.S.A., 1924.
