Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 34 (1896).djvu/75

 NEW AFRICAN PLANTS. 65 are densely covered on the lower surface with stellate hairs, sparsely on the upper. The perianth -segments are 3J lines long, |-1 line broad ; the stamens are 2|- lines, the style 2 lines. Evidently closely allied to C. somalensis, the only species hitherto contained in the genus, but at once distinguished by its much larger ovate leaves with the dense covering of stellate hairs, un- branched hairs only occurring on those of C. somalensis. The perianth-segments are also shorter and broader in proportion, and of slightly more membranous texture. Hydnora Hanningtoni Eendle, sp. n. (Plate 356). Ehizo- mate crasso subangulato coralliforme valde tuberculoso ; floribus magnis oblongo-cylindricis, perianthii 4-fidi lobis lineari-clavatis marginibus barbatis apieem versus nudis ; antheris 4 in medio tubo contiguis oblongis demum triangularibus apice rotundis; ovario cylindrico, stigmatibus 4 cruciatis. Hab. Jordan's Nullah, Victoria Nyanza, Bishop Hannington, Dec. 1882. Ginia, Galla Highlands, Dr. Donaldson Smith, 1895. The thick irregularly-shaped rhizome owes its coral-like appear- ance to the short ovoid buds by which it is densely covered ; it reaches 1 in. in thickness. The flowers are smooth externally, and brown in colour (according to Bishop Hannington's sketch), 6-7 in. long, subcylindrical before opening, after which the upper part of the perianth-lobes is separate, but incurved at the tips. The perianth is 5 in. long, the diameter of the tube being a good inch, while the lobes are 2^-3 in. long, and 1^ in. broad in the upper third. The edges for two-thirds their length from the base are reflexed and covered with short fleshy setae ; in Bishop Hanning- ton's sketch they are pink in colour. The four anthers form a continuous four-lobed ring, attached to the perianth-tube. The n- shaped lobes are 1 in. high, the bhick closely approximate arms i in. across. The numerous pollen-sacs are indicated by transverse striation. The four A-shaped stigmas are arranged in the form of a cross, crowning the ovary, which is 1^ in. long. Is alUed to the two Abyssinian species with tetramerous flowers, H. abyssiyiica A. Br. and H. bogosensis Becc. From the former it is distinguished by the absence of the hook on the interior of the perianth-lobes, by the clavate shape of the latter, and the short setae on their edges. From H. bogosensis Becc, which I h^ve not seen, it differs (e descript. in Niiov. Giorn. Bot. Ital. iii. 6) in the character of the perianth-lobes, which are lanceolate in the Abys- sinian plant, and have their edges naked and only sparsely barbato radulosis in the middle. Dr. Donaldson Smith says the fleshy rhizome is eaten by the Somalis. Note. — We have at the British Museum another Hydnora (H. abyssiidca) from Somaliland, collected by Hildebrandt at Meid (on the Gulf of Aden), April, 1875. H. abyssinica has hitherto been recorded, except from Abyssinia, only from Pangani, on the east coast of Africa, nearly opposite Zanzibar (see Die Pflanzenwelt Ost-Afrik. th. 0, p. 169). Gillettia Rendle, gen. nov. Commelinacearum (Plate 855, fig. 2), (Aneilematis species, G. B. Clarke in DC. Monogr, Fhanerog,