Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 34 (1896).djvu/32

16 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE FLORA OF SOUTH AFRICA. When looking through some Asclepiads in the Herbarium of the British Museum, I came across a plant on which Mr. Kidley had recently founded a new genus, Spiladocorys. It struck me at once as being very like Pentasachme. This induced me to compare the species of the latter genus more closely, and after careful examination of several flowers I came to the conclusion that not only Ridley's plant but also P. Championi Benth. could not be kept distinct from P. caudata Wall. P. Chamjnoni has, with the exception of its less elongated leaf-tips, no character which would justify its specific separation from P. caudata, a plant which, in regard to the form of the corona-scales, seems somewhat variable, as I have noticed some of them with more or less crenulate tips, as well as others which were more deeply toothed.

As the two Chinese species published by Decaisne from imperfect material came from a region that is now pretty well explored, it seems probable that both will either prove identical with the plant (P. Championi) described by Bentham from the same region, or will not belong to Pentasachme at all. We should thus have the genus reduced again to its two original species, with the following synonymy: —

Wight, ''Contrib. to Bot. Ind. (1853), 60; Delessert, Ic. Select.'', v. (1846), t. 87; Dcne, in DC. Prod. viii. (1843), 627; Hook. f. ''Fl. Br. Ind.'' iv. (1885), 28.

Wall. ex Wight, l. c. (1834), 60; Dene. l. c. (1843), 627; Hook. f. l. c. (1885), 28. P. Championi Benth. in Hook. ''Kew Journ. Bot. v. 64 (1853); Fl. Hongkong.'' 228 (1861); Hemsl. in ''Journ. Linn. Soc. Bot.'' xxvi. 112 (1889); Maxim. ''Mél. Biol.'' ix. 811. Spiladocorys angustifolia Ridl. in ''Trans. Linn. Soc. Bot.'' ser. 2, iii. (1893), 322, t. 63.

Heliophila namaquana, n. sp. — Herba annua glabra, ½-1 pedalis; caulis e basi patenti-ramosus paucifoliatus pallidus; folia sparsa linearia, l•5-2•3 cm. longa; racemi laxiflori, fructiferi ad 15 cm. longi, pedicellis gracilibus, 4-5 mill. longis; flores inter minores, circa 4 mill. longi, sepalis linearibus, petalis obovatis obtusis, filamentis omnibus basi muticis; siliquæ patenti-adscendentes lineares, interdum subtorulosæ l-nervæ, cum pedicello et stylo ad 3•5 cm. longæ, 1-1•5 mill. latæ; stylus clavato-oblongus obtusissimus, in spec. fructiferis ad 4-5 mill. longus; semina ovalia exalata subnigra.


 * Cape Colony, district of Little Namaqualand, at Naries, on the mts. between Spektakel and Ookiep, alt. about 1075 meters, fl. Sept., Bolus (No. 6517); Herb. Norm, Austr-Afr. (No. 485).