SOME AFRICAN LABIATE WITH ALTERNATE LEAVES. 275 
style leave no doubt as to its belonging to the Labiate. In the 
dried state the stem is more or less striate, and it is upon the 
striations that the leaves are borne. The flowers are alternate 
aud somewhat distant, but occasionally a second bract occurs 
opposite to that which subtends a flower. 
PLECTRANTHUS INSOLITUS, C. H. Wright. (Pl.6.figs. 7, 8.) 
Herba glabra. Caulis erectus, 9 poll. altus, basi ramosus subliz- 
nosus, siccitate striatus. Folia alterna, linearia vel leviter falcata, 
acuta, basi attenuata, integra, 14 poll. longa, 1 lin. lata. Racemus 
terminalis; bractes sepius alterne, rarius opposite, una vacua, 
ovato-lauceolatz;, quam pedicelli breviores; pedicelli tenues, 
3 lin. longi. Calya campanulatus, extra glandulosus; lobus 
superior integer, latus; lobi inferiores anguste triangulares. 
Corolle tubus prope basin contractus, deinde campanulatus; 
labium inferius extra glandulosum, integrum; superius dentibus 
4 subequalibus obtusis preditum. ` Filamenta basi brevissime 
connata. Ovarium (novellum solum visum) profunde 4- partitum. 
Hab. Angola, Welwitsch, 5593. 
It may be thought that the shortly united filaments forbid the 
placing of this plant in Pleetanthus. But the genera Capitanya, 
Englerastrum, and Solenostemon, in which this form of union 
occurs, are unlike it; and we have preferred to be guided by 
other characters in leaving it thus as a doubly aberrant form of 
the large genus Plectranthus. 
The chief interest of our paper centres in /comum ; and the 
increase of its species from one to four establishes the genus 
upon a firmer basis as a peculiar development of the Labiate, 
confined to Africa. We do not consider that the relationships of 
the order are in any way explained by it, as there is no evidence 
for regarding it as primitive. Still the recognition of a genus 
in Labiat® characterized by the possession of alternate leaves 
lessens the distinctness of the order in what is certainly one 
of its most prominent features. If, at a later date, we are able 
to investigate the anatomy of the stem, we shail seize the 
opportunity. 
To M. Henri Hua, for the kind way in which he has given us 
information about /comum paradoxum, and to Miss M. Smith, who 
has drawn the plate illustrating the forms we describe, we desire 
to express our most siucere thanks, 
