Tab. 7000. 

 HUERNIA asmka. 



Native of Zanzibar. 



Nat. Ord. Asclepiade.e. — Tribe Stapelie.e. 

 Genus Huernia, Br. ; (Benth. et Hooh.f. Gen. PL vol. ii. p. 784.) 



HtrEBNTA asjrera ; caulibus decurnbentibus v. declinatis, ramis adscendentibus 

 cjlindraceis laevibus glabenimis 5-6-sulcatis interspatiis convexis, foliis 

 minutis remotis dentiformibus, cymis sessilibus 2-3-floris, bracteis subulatis, 

 pedicellis corolla brevioribus, sepalis lineari-subulatis patentibus, corolla cam- 

 panulata intus saturate purpurea, lobis brevibus deltokleis acuminatis, corona? 

 exterioris lobis o brevibus, interioris lobis subulatis antheris paullolongioribus. 



H. aspera, iV. E. Brown in Gard. Citron. 1887, vol. ii. p. 364. 



This little plant is interesting as being a tropical 

 African member of a genus that has hitherto been known 

 to occur only in South Africa. About a dozen species are 

 described, most of which were first published long ago as 

 Stapelias, from which genus Huernia was separated by 

 Brown on account of its campanulate corolla. In the 

 early years of this century, when succulents were favourite 

 objects of culture, about half-a-dozen kinds of Huernia 

 were known, and of these five are figured in the early 

 numbers of this Magazine. These are enumerated under 

 H. brevirostris, N. B. Br. (tab. 6379), which, with If. oculata, 

 N. E. Br., are more recent 'additions. The above all 

 closely resemble Stapelia in habit, and occur in the head- 

 quarters of the tribe, which is the western districts of 

 South Africa. H. aspera, on the other hand, not only inhabits 

 a very distant and far different latitude and climate from 

 these, but differs from them greatly in habit, which re- 

 sembles a good deal that of the North African and Sicilian 

 representative of the Stapeliea, the Boucerosia Gussoniana 

 (Apteranthes Gusso?iiana, Tabl. 5087). 



H. aspera was sent from Zanzibar by Sir John Kirk in 

 1886, and is no doubt a native of that island or of the 

 opposite coast. The plant flowered in the Eoyal Gardens 

 m September, 1887. 



-Desce. Stems straggling, procumbent, purplish brown, 



JUNE 1st, 1888. 



