THE TRIUMFETTAS OF AFRICA. 239 
branches to bracts, sepals usually with well-marked horns, and 25-40 stamens ; 
digitata has a 5-6-celled ovary, trijida а 3-celled, and macrocoma a 
2-celled. 
Subsect. ACTINOCARPÆ includes actinocarpa, pleiacantha, and ramosa (Kew 
Bull. 1909, 257), shrubs with suborbicular or elliptie-ovate leaves, few- 
flowered cymes borne opposite an ordinary foliage-leaf, 35-40 stamens 
(unknown in ramosa) and a 2- or 3-celled ovary. 
Subsect. SONDERIANÆ includes Sonderii, plumigera, and triandra, rhizo- 
matous undershrubs with oblong leaves ; the сутез are borne on short lateral 
axillary branches : in Sonderii the upper leaves of these branches are reduced 
to braets; in plumigera all the leaves of the lateral branches are reduced, so 
that the inflorescences appear axillary ; and in triandra the lateral branches 
themselves are so reduced that the cymes appear to be fascicled in the axils 
of the leaves on the main stems. The stamens are 15-20 in Sonderii, 10 in 
plumigera, and 3 in triandra (Kew Bull. 1909, 258). 
Subsect. PAXICULATÆ includes geoides, rhodoneura, iomalla, hirsuta, 
Mastersii, and Welwitschii, perennial herbs, with thick woody rhizome and 
annual above-ground shoots, cymes arranged in a terminal leafless panicle 
owing to the reduction to small bracts of all the upper leaves, 20-53 stamens, 
and a 2-celled ovary (2-4-celled in T. Welwitschii, var. laxiflora). 
The subsections Actinocarpe and Sonderiane include species both from 
N. Australia and Africa, and present an interesting phytogeographical 
problem. The subject is too wide to be discussed in a taxonomic paper, and 
we will only remark that these two subsections represent a distinctly austral 
element. 
The simplest type of inflorescence is found in the Graciles and Actinocarpr, 
in which none of the foliage-leaves are reduced to bracts ; in the Digitate 
and Sonderianæ the leaves of the axillary branchlets are more or less reduced ; 
and in the Paniculate all the leaves on axes of various orders in the upper part 
of the stem are reduced to bracts, a leafless terminal panicle resulting. The 
first four subsections include fruticose and suffruticose species, and the fifth 
perennial herbs. The subsection Paniculatw would appear, therefore, to be 
more highly modified than the other four, and it is noteworthy in this con- 
nection that it is the largest subsection and the only one in which the species 
are critical. It may be subdivided into two groups, the first, including 
geoides and rhodoneura, with suborbicular leaves, and the second with more or 
less oblong or linear leaves. In the latter group the leaves are frequently not 
fully developed at the time of flowering, and material at this stage may be 
almost impossible to name. Two of the species, iomalla and hirsuta, may be 
distinguished by their indumentum; but the remaining six, namely Welwitschii, 
