DESCRIPTION:--_Stem_ short, sometimes reaching 1 metre in height, 8-12 cm. in diameter. _Leaves_ numerous, 30-60 in a dense rosette, arcuate-erect, 30-65 cm. long, 3-7 cm. broad at the base, 8-10 mm. thick, lanceolate, acuminate, acute, flat on the upper surface and slightly canaliculate towards the tip, convex beneath, light green or slightly glaucous, with the margins armed with red sharply pointed horny prickles 3-4 mm. long and 10-17 mm. apart, and in old leaves the tips withered and reddish in colour. _Inflorescence_ a lax panicle 2-3·5 metres high. _Peduncle_ stout with 2-8 ascending branches, subtended by deltoid-ovate bracts at the base; racemes dense, 15-50 cm. long, conical-cylindric. _Bracts_ at first densely imbricate, 15-20 mm. long, 10-12 mm. broad, ovate-deltoid, many veined. _Pedicels_ 20-25 mm. long, lengthening and becoming erect in the fruit. _Perianth_ pendulous, 40-43 mm. long, cylindrical, slightly swollen towards the middle and tapering upwards, peach-red (R.C.S.), with yellowish-green tips. _Stamens_ shortly exserted; filaments greenish-yellow; anthers reddish-brown. _Style_ shortly exserted. _Capsule_ greyish, enwrapped in the dry perianth, 15-18 mm. long, about 6 mm. in diameter, cylindrical, 3-angled. _Seeds_ dark, 2-5 mm. long, very narrowly 3-winged.
PLATE 18.--Fig. 1, plant much reduced; Fig. 2, part of a leaf, natural size; Fig. 3, bract.
CLERODENDRON TRIPHYLLUM, H.H.W. PEARSON.]
_Transvaal, Orange Free State, Natal, Zululand._
CLERODENDRON, _Linn._; _Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant._ vol. ii. p. 1155; _Fl. Cap._ vol. v. sect. 1, p. 220.
=Cyclonema triphyllum=, _Harv. Thes. Cap._ vol. i. p. 17, t. 27.
One of the charming spring plants found on the High Veld of the Transvaal and especially abundant after early winter veld fires. The corolla is of the same deep blue seen in many species of _Lobelia_, and the colour of the flowers makes the plant a conspicuous object in the veld. Our illustration was made from specimens collected by Dr. I. B. Pole Evans at Kaalfontein, between Pretoria and Germiston.
DESCRIPTION:--A low undershrub 12-60 cm. high. _Stems_ erect from an underground woody rootstock, angular, striate, usually puberulous at the nodes, glabrous when mature. _Leaves_ in whorls of 3 or 4, or opposite, sessile, 1·3-6 cm. long, 2-1·3 cm. broad, lanceolate or occasionally linear, acute or subacute, narrowed at the base, entire, glabrous, gland-dotted beneath. _Inflorescence_ a 1-3-flowered pedunculate axillary cyme. _Peduncles_ up to 2·6 cm. long, with 2 opposite lanceolate bracts near the summit. _Flowers_ pedicellate. _Calyx_ 3-7·5 mm. long, campanulate, 5-lobed, 5-ribbed, glabrous, with a tube equalling or slightly exceeding the ovate acute segments. _Corolla_ deep chicory-blue to royal purple (R.C.S.); tube 3-7·5 mm. long, bent, villous or glabrous at the throat; 4 upper lobes unequal, obliquely obovate or elliptic, obtuse; lower lobes obovate or oblong, exceeding the upper. _Stamens_ glabrous. _Fruit_ a 1-2-seeded drupe, 1-1·8 cm. long, 9-1·3 cm. in diameter, ovoid, smooth.