indicates a tendency during the period when the 
cultivation of Cape Heaths was popular to place undue 
reliance on characters, derived from the corolla, that 
South African field-botanists have found to be unstable. 
The late Mr. Bolus, one of the most distinguished of these, 
has recognised three segregates from the type, to which 
our plant appears to belong; in so doing, however, he 
has relied on differences in the calyx alone, and has not 
suggested that his segregates are more than varieties. 
For the reintroduction of this species to Kew we are 
indebted to the Director of the National Botanic Garden 
at Kirstenbosch, from whom seeds were received in 
February, 1915. One of the plants raised from these 
seeds flowered ina greenhouse at Kew in June, 1919. A 
plant of sturdy habit and robust growth, ZL. sessiliflora 
is striking on account of its semi-transparent flowers. 
A member of the subgenus Syringodea, it has been placed 
in the Mammosae group of the section Pleurocallis and is 
allied, though not very closely, to EZ. guva, Wendl., from 
which it is easily distinguished by its sessile flowers 
and different corolla. It is readily separated from E. 
Broadleyana, Andr., and E. Bowieana, Lodd., by its dense 
close spike, from E. mammosa, Linn., by the corolla 
being terete at the base, and from E. filipendula, Benth., 
by the ovary being sessile. 
Description.—Undershrub, 1}-1? ft. high, erect and branched, the stem 
3 in. thick at the collar, pale brown. Leaves 4-nately whorled, linear-subulate, 
sharply cuspidate, narrowed below to the petiole, those lower down about } 
in., those highest up about } in, long, very narrow, pale green with a white 
midrib, the lower leaves slightly and finely puberulous on the upper side, 
the upper leaves with finely ciliolate edges but elsewhere glabrous; petiole 
e, pulvinate at the base, very short in the lower leaves, »; in. long in 
those higher up, Flowers sessile in the axils of the uppermost leaves ; bracts 
resembling the upper leaves; bracteoles 6, the lower linear-lanceolate, } in. 
long, the upper linear-spathulate, over in. long. Sepals 4, linear-spathulate, 
_— ¢ in. long, hyaline. Corolla narrowly funnel-shaped, about 1 in. long, 
33 In. wide at the base, } in. wide at the top, yellowish-green, glabrous; lobes 
4, blunt, 1 in. wide. Stamens 8, included ; filaments over § in. long, slender ; 
snc tz in. long, with 2 basal processes behind. Ovary cylindric, ~; in. 
ane: 20, 4 across, 8-grooved, glabrous ; style 1 in. long, glabrous; stigma 
Tas. 8868.—Fig. 1, leaves 
; 2, fl i : ; 
5, pistil :—ail enlerged, 2, flower, with bracteoles 5 8 and 4, stamens 
