RARE PLANTS FROM MADAGASCAR. 333 
on the underside at the tip. ‘The pollinia are green, and have 
the long slender pedicels, and the pink anthers the correspond- 
ing long arms characteristic of the genus. The spur appears 
to be usually concealed in the uppermost sheathing leaves; it 
is long and straight, and the terminal half is suddenly dilated. 
DIOSCOREA mExAGONA, Baker. 
To this species I have, after much doubt, referred a number 
of plants collected by Hilsenberg and Bojer and Hildebrandt. 
They are erect unbranched plants about a foot high, with 
narrow 5-nerved leaves. The sexes are on distinct plants; the 
male plants have lax few-flowered suberect racemes, and are in 
structure similar to those of the type. The female plants have 
erect lax racemes with few shortly pedicellate flowers, and acu- 
minate bracts as long as the pedicels. The lobes of the perianth 
are six, small, obtusely ovate ; and each bears a short rudimen- 
tary stamen. There are three distinct styles, short and thick, 
with bifid curved stigmas. The fruit is oblong, 3-winged, erect, 
and crowned with the persistent remains of the perianth. Among 
the type specimens in the Kew Herbarium one is a climbing form ; 
and in this specimen the leaves are cordate; in the others, 
which seem to have been erect-growing, the leaves are nar- 
rower and more similar to those of the above-described plants. 
It is probable that the young plants are erect, and bear 
narrow leaves, and later in life take on a climbing habit and 
leaves of a shape more characteristic of the family. Several, 
indeed, of the smaller species of Dioscorea, such as D. pyrenaica 
and D. pusilla, appear to have a somewhat erect habit in their 
younger stages, though they never appear to grow for more than 
an inch or two erect. 
Hilsenberg's specimens were gathered “in graminosis mon- 
tium prov. Emerinz," where it was called by the natives kitaoo- 
taoo. Hildebrandt’s are labelled * Feuchten Stellen, Nord-Bet- 
sileo land, Jan. 1881 (no. 3876). 
XEROPHYTA SPINULOSA, n. sp. Frutex ramosus, ramis basibus 
foliorum vetustorum tectis, foliis linearibus acutis basi vix dila- 
tata, 6-12 rosulatis, semipedalibus, marginibus spinis crebris 
armatis, scapis unifloris, quam folia vix longioribus, gracilibus vis- 
cosis, phyllis perianthii uncialibus glandulosis linearibus oblongis, 
staminibus ligulatis, ovario conico glanduloso. 
This plant is closely allied to X. dasylirioides, Bak., but is dis- 
