longer pedicels. Our first specimens of the Socotra plant 
were brought to Kew in 1878 by Mr. Wykeham Perry, 
but these were without flower. A year later we had 
similar examples brought by Mr. Jas. Collins; but fora full 
knowledge of the plant and of its best differential characters 
we are indebted to Professor Bayley Balfour of Glasgow, 
who made a thorough exploration of the island last year 
under the auspices of the British Association for the 
Advancement of Science, and brought home a collection 
of plants, which includes a large number of new genera 
and species. Our drawing is made from living plants pre- 
sented by Dr. Balfour to Kew, two of which flowered in 
the Succulent-house in the summer of the present year. 
He found it spread widely through the island, especially in 
the limestone tracts, ranging from sea-level to an altitude 
of 3000 feet ; and he has also found in small quantity what 
appears to be a second endemic Socotran species with 
dwarfer habit and spotted leaves. 
Descr. Trunk in the cultivated examples simple, about a 
foot in length, one and a half or two inches in diameter. 
Leaves twelve to twenty in a dense rosette, lanceolate, a 
foot long, three inches broad at the base, tapering gradually 
to an acuminate point, a dead rather glaucous green with a 
reddish tinge towards the edge, channelled all the way 
down the face, one-sixth of an inch thick in the centre, the 
small deltoid-cuspidate pale-brown marginal prickles about 
a quarter of an inch apart. Inflorescence one and a half or 
two feet long, generally with two or three forks, rarely 
simple; peduncle purple-tinted, flattened towards the base ; 
racemes oblong-cylindrical, three to six inches long, two 
inches in diameter ; pedicels red, a quarter or a third of an 
inch long, the lower ones cernuous; bracts lanceolate- 
deltoid, shorter than the pedicels. Perianth cylindrical, an 
inch long, bright red, with a green tip in an early stage, 
turning yellow as it matures; tube cylindrical, rather 
constricted at the middle; segments oblong, a third as long 
as the tube. 
Stamens and style finally slicht] ted.— 
J. G. Baker. de y slightly exser 
Fig. 1, A flower complete; 2, back and front view of 
: nthers ; 3, pistil; 4, hori- 
zontal section of ovary :—all more or less enlarged. eS: pts A 
