MR. P. MACOWAN ON NEW CAPE PLANTS. 393 
inches high, covered with numerous, often much abbreviated 
ramuli, which on the upper branches are often densely floriferous. 
Zeyher’s specimens, marked 1117, in the Cape Government 
Herbarium, are from two widely separated localities, and repre- 
sent the plint in poor condition and sparsely flowered. When 
luxuriant, as in the Herb. Norm. examples, the short flowering 
ramuli are so closely set as to give a spicate appearance to the 
terminal branches. The leaves are sometimes quite entire, some- 
times obscurely denticulate. The corolla, calyx, and bracts are 
white or pale pink. The mid-vein of the sepals is conspicuously 
thickened to the drawn-out apex, and gives them a somewhat 
keeled appearance. 
GEISSORHIZA BELLENDENT, MacOwan, n. sp.— G. bulbo pisi- 
formi, squamis imbricatis, foliis infimis linearibus, vix lineam latis, 
vena media utrinque prominula, caulinis latioribus acutis, deorsum 
inflato-vaginantibus, ecostatis, seapo plerumque simplici, minute 
glanduloso-pubescente ; spathis inzquivalvibus, margine anguste 
membranaceis, valva exteriore ovata, inflata, ecostata, interiore 
i-minore, acuta; perianthii segmentis sursum saturate ceruleis, 
alibi subpellueidis; foveola neetarifera nulla; antheris lineari- 
sagittatis, stylum sequantibus; stigmatibus recurvis, margine 
ciliatis. 
Hab. In arenosis subhumidis, Groenkloof, in ditione Malmes- 
bury, Caput Bone Spei; Herb. Norm. Austr.- Afr. n. 810. 
This plant is probably the one referred to by Ker in Bot. Mag. 
xvii. sub t. 598, as var. 3. spithamea of his Ixia Rochensis. He 
says :—“ Variety (3) we have only seen in a dried state, by 
whieh we could not ascertain whether it possessed the small 
nectareous excavation at the base of each segment so remarkable 
in (a), and consequently are uncertain whether it ought to be 
considered a mere variety or a distinct species." It has been 
long in cultivation in the Capetown Botanie Garden, and is 
readily distinguishable from Geissorhiza Rochensis, Ker, which 
is a stouter plant with perfectly glabrous scape and leaves, the 
spatbeeform leaf and outer spathe-valve rib striate, the latter 
being truncate at the apex. In this latter species, too, the inner 
spathe-valve is biplicate, and only the angles of the plice are green, 
the rest being membranous. There is a considerable variation in 
the apex of the outer valve of G. Bellendeni. In some specimens 
it is very acute, in others bluntish ; but never truneate as in 
