Tap. 6555. 
BEGONIA SOCOTRANA. 
Native of the Island or Socotra. 
Nat. Ord. Becontacem. 
Genus Brconta, Linn.; (Benth. et Hook. J. Gen, Pl. vol. i. p. 841,) > 
Breonta socotrana; sparse patentim hirsuta, erecta, foliis peltatis orbicularibus 
disco intruso infundibulariformi marginibus recurvis crenatis, floribus monoicis 
roseis masculis numerosis, perianthii segmentis 4 obovatis, staminibus in globum 
confertis, filamentis brevibus liberis, antheris clavatis recurvis apice rotundata 
postice dehiscentibus, floribus feemineis solitariis, perianthii segmentis 6 ellip- 
tico-obovatis, stylis brevibus ramis patenti incurvis non tortis, stigmatibus 
cordatis linea papillosa conjunctis, ovario 3-gono 3-loculari, loculo dorsali alato, 
placentis integris. 
B. socotrana, Hook. f. in Gard. Chron. 1881, p. 8, eum ic. xylog. 
A beautiful species, of which tubers were brought by 
Dr. I. B. Balfour from the dry and hot island of Socotra, 
in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Arabia, one of the last 
places in the world in which a Begonia could have been 
expected to occur. From the geographical position of that 
island the affinity of this discovery may be conjectured to 
be either Asiatic or African, and, upon the whole, though 
referable to none of the sixty sections of the genus, founded 
by Klotzsch and A. de Candolle, it must, I think, be placed 
in the African one of Augustia, from the characters of 
which it differs chiefly in the male perianth having four 
Segments, in the shorter filaments, rounded top of the 
anther, in the six lobes of the female perianth (instead of 
five), and the untwisted arms of the style—characters all 
of which, except the last, occur in the Natal B. geranioides, 
Hook f. (Bot. Mag. Tab. 5583), to which B. socotrana is 
unquestionably closely allied. This is only one of the 
many most interesting plants brought by Dr. I. B. Balfour 
from an island which he alone has had the good fortune to 
explore, and the publication of the results of which explora- 
APRIL Ist, 1881, 
