100 CIX, POLYGONACEH (BAKER AND WRIGHT). | Oxygonum. 
1-1} in. long, acute, narrowed gradually at the base to a short petiole; 
ochre greenish-white, funnel-shaped, ciliate-dentate or nearly entire. 
Racemes very lax, 4-8 in. long; flowers 2-3 to a cluster; pedicels 
much longer than the ovate membranous bract. Perianth-limb pinkish 
or milk-white, 2 lir. long. Perianth-tube in fruit ovoid, 4 lin. long, 
broadly winged at the 3 angles—Meisn. in DC. Prodr. xiv. 38 ; Hook. 
Ic. Pl. xiv. 14, t. 1821; Hiern in Cat. Afr. Pl. Welw. i. 902; Schinz 
in Bull. Herb. Boiss. iv. Append. iii. 57. 
Lower Guinea. Angola: Huilla; near Lopollo, Welwitsch, 1755! German 
South-west Africa: Damaraland, Chapman & Baines! Amboland; Olukonda, Schinz, 
500! Rautanen, 135, Hépfner, 111c; Hereroland, Belek, 27; Great Namaqua- 
land, Fleck, 151A. 
Mozamb. Dist. British Central Africa: Ngamiland; Kwebe, Lugard, 89! 
90! Mrs. Lugard,109! Rhodesia; Victoria Falls, Allen, 287! 
Also in extra-tropical South Africa. 
I have not seen the nearly allied O. canescens, var. subglabra, Schinz in Bult. 
Herb, Boiss. iv. Append. iii. 57, from Amboland, Schinz, 2058, and Wulfhorst, 4. 
3. O. delagoense, O. Kuntze, Rev. Gen. Pl. iii. 268. Herbaceous. 
Stem erect or ascending, up to 3 ft. high ; branches slender, more or less 
distinctly triquetrous, papillose. Leaves from linear to lanceolate, 1-2 
in. long, 1-3 lin. wide, acuminate, sometimes trifid, pubescent ; ochre 
3 lin. long, tubular, pubescent, sete about 10, pallid, shorter than the 
tubular part. Racemes terminai, lax, slender, up to 6 in. long; bracts 
oblique, subulate, not setose, pubescent ; pedicels 2-4 in the axil of each 
bract, shortly exserted. Perianth nearly 3 lin. long, cylindrical and 
densely pubescent below, campanulate and less densely so above ; lobes 
twice as long as the tube, oblong, acute. Stamens half as long as the 
perianth; anther-cells diverging at the base. Fruit triquetrous, 
acuminate, not winged nor spiny. 
Mozamb. Dist. Rhodesia: Leshumo Valley, Holub, 720! 732! 795! 796! 
Also in South Africa. 
Var. strictum, C. H. Wright. Rootstock woody. Stems erect, puberulous, 
reddish and woody below, slender. Leaves linear, 1 in. long, 1 lin. wide or less, 
almost glabrous; sete longer than the tubular part of the ochree. Bracts with 
about 2 set besides the terminal cusp. 
Mozamb. Dist. German East Africa: east side of Lake Tanganyika, Scott- 
Elliot, 8365 ! 
The habit of the variety suggests development after prairie fires. 
4. O. pubescens, (. H. Wright. Stems ascending, }-1 ft. high, 
slightly sulcate, not much swollen at the nodes, 1 lin. in diam., finely 
pubescent; ochrez 2 lin. long, sete nearly as long as the tube. Leaves 
linear, 1 in. long, § lin. wide, acute, puberulous. Racemes lax, about 51- 
long; bracts campanulate, cuspidate, without setz ; flowers 2-3 in each 
cluster; pedicels longer than the bracts. Perianth ‘ whitish-yellow 
(Cecil), campanulate, about 3 lin: long, puberulous outside ; lobes ovate, 
obtuse, half as long as the tube. Stamens included ; filaments } lin. 
