of the specimens of S. caulescens that were first published, 
and which were collected by Hildebrandt in Hast Africa 
(and which I have not seen), the leaves are said to be oval- 
oblong, obtuse, and contracted into the petiole, characters 
which do not well suit any of the Kew examples, but rather 
tend to unite them. 
S. caulescens is probably a common plant in the moist 
hill regions of Eastern Tropical Africa. Its discoverer 
appears to have been the indefatigable Sir John Kirk, who 
found it in 1877 near Magila in south latitude 5° 8’, and 
whose specimens exactly accord with the figure here given. 
The latter was raised by Mr. Mitten, A.L.S., from seeds 
sent from the Lake region of Central Africa by Bishop 
Hannington, and which flowered at Kew in February of 
the present year. Of the larger form, with violet flowers 
and lanceolate leaves, there are specimens in the Kew 
Herbarium collected in the Shire Highlands by Mr. 
Buchanan, communicated by the Botanical Society of 
Edinburgh ; and from the mountains east of Lake Nyassa, 
collected by the Rev. W. P. Johnson, and presented by 
Mr. Waller. 
A very interesting fact in the life history of all the 
Streptocarpi is their mode of germination,* and which in 
respect of S. caulescens is the subject of a paper by Prof. 
‘Dickson, published in the Transactions of the Botanical 
Society of Edinburgh. This author describes the embryo 
as having two equal minute cotyledons, of which one 
remains stationary in germination, whilst the other is 
developed into a leaf quite like the future stem-leaves. 
But what is most curious is, that an internode is developed 
between the undeveloped and developed cotyledon, which 
latter is therefore carried up on a stem that thereafter by 
fusion with the ascending axis becomes the main stem of 
the plant, branching above, and the branches bearing 
opposite leaves.—J. D. H. 
* First observed by Prof. Caspary in 1858 (Verhand, Nat. Hist. Vereins Rheinl. 
vol. xv., also Flora, 1859, p. 120), and independently in 1860 by Mr. Crocker, 
foreman of the propagating pits at Kew (Journ. Linn. Soc. Bot. vol. v. p. 65. 
Fig. 1, Base of stem, of the natural F ; : ; : 
ae cena; © Rake eae sere oe calyx and ovary; | 3, base of corolla 
