Muraltia
(named after John Von Muralt, 1645-1733, a Swiss botanist). ORD. Polygaleae. A genus comprising about fifty species of greenhouse, densely-branched, small shrubs or under-shrubs, confined to South Africa. Flowers small, axillary, sub-sessile, solitary. Leaves few or fasciculate, small, rigid, often aciculate. M. Heisteria, the species best known to cultivation, is almost perpetually in flower under good treatment. It thrives best in a peaty soil, to which should be added plenty of sand. Propagated by cuttings of short young shoots, placed in sandy peat, under a hand glass. Similar culture will be suitable for the other species. M. filiformis (thread-formed). fl. reddish, axillary, sessile, solitary, shorter than the leaves, rather distant, beardless. Flowering during the greater part of the year. l. alternate, somewhat remote, awl-shaped. h. 12ft. 1800. (A. B. R. 424, under name of Polygala micrantha.) M. Heisteria (Heister's).* fl. purple, small, axillary, sessile. January. l.triquetrous, stiff, spiny at the apex, in bundles. Brancblets puberulous. h. 2ft. to 3ft. 1787. (P. M. B. iv. 150.) M. stipulacea (stipuled). fl. red, lateral, beardless. June. l. ternate, linear, acute. h. 3ft. 1801. (A. B. R. 363, under name of Polygala stipulacea.)