DB. il. T. MASTERS ON SOUTII-AFKICAIS' EESTIACE.13. 217 



lias led me to combine all the above-named genera into one, my 

 warranty for so doing being derived not only from comparison of 

 the various plants, but also from the statements of Nees von 

 Esenbeck, in Dr. Sonder's herbarium, wherein are contained 

 notes, in the handwriting of the eminent botanist just mentioned, 

 to the effect that the genus named by him Sypodiscus is the 

 same as that called by Kunth BoecJchia. The genus, as now con- 

 stituted, is not distinguishable from Restio or Leptocarpus^ as far as 

 the male plants are concerned ; but the female flowers arc wholly 

 different, and are more like those of Willdenovia ; indeed one 

 species, II. aristatus, has precisely the same form of female flower 

 as the species of Willdenovia : that is to say, the perianth is sup- 

 ported on a fleshy stalk or stipes, with the top of which the base 

 of the glumes is continuous ; the ovary, too, is supported on a 

 short slender stalk. On the other hand, the male flowers are in 

 compact spikes, and have an unequally 6-glumed perianth, very 

 unlike that of Willdenovia. In the remaining species of this 

 genus the florets are either sessile or, if stalked, the stalk is very 

 short and slender; the perianth is six-glumed, the glumes being 

 nearly equal in size and form, and persistent around the base of 

 the fruit. The ovary is stalked ; and sometimes, especially in 

 II, alho-aristatus and H. syncTiroolepis, the gynophore expands 

 into a shallow, fleshy, cup-like, lobed disk, in which the base 

 of the ovary is placed, and with which it is occasionally cohe- 

 rent ; so that the disk in question is sometimes completely hypo- 

 gynous, at other times perigynous. The surface of the ovary, 

 especially its upper portion, is generally studded with tubercles, 

 which increase in size and consistence as the fruit ripens. The 

 base of the style is also often dilated into a fleshy mass sur- 

 mounting the ovary, and continuous with the tubercles just men- 

 tioned ; so that in some of the species the ovary or fruit appears 

 to have an hypogynous or perigynous disk below, and an epigy- 

 nous one above. Without an examination of fresh specimens, in 

 various stages of development, it would be presumptuous to make 

 any very positive assertions as to the nature of these disks; but, 

 80 far as I have been enabled to ascertain their nature, I believe 

 the hypogynous and perigynous disks to be cellular expansions 

 from the stalk supporting the ovary. In the female flowers of 

 -2f. aristatus, the flower itself is supported by a fleshy stipes. 

 The tubercles on the upper portion of the ovary, and the dilated 

 base of the style, are aliso purely cellular excrescences. What 

 their purport may be 1 know not. 



