Medusae was published by Linnaeus more than a century 

 and a half ago, there was long some doubt as to its 

 precise incidence, owing to the fact that the author cited 

 under his description figures which represent five distinct 

 species. But, as Mr. Brown has elsewhere pointed out, 

 the plant Linnaeus had in view must have been one in 

 the garden of Mr. George Clifford ; that plant must 

 have come from near Cape Town ; the only species from 

 there which agrees with the description of Linnaeus 

 is that now depicted. The specimen figured was grown 

 in the garden of Lady Hanbury at La Mortola, Venti- 

 miglia, where it flowered in March, 1916 ; it only differs 

 from the wild plant in having considerably thicker 

 branches. The sketch which accompanies our figure has 

 been reduced from a photograph of a living specimen, 

 eighteen inches across, obtained by Mr. E. Pillans in 

 December, 1911, on the slopes of the Lion's Head near 

 Cape Town. Like the other members of its section, 

 E. Caput- Medusae is easily grown in this country under 

 ordinary greenhouse conditions. 



Description. — Shrub, dwarf, succulent ; stem sub- 

 globose, sometimes 6-8 in. thick, depressed at the top 

 and giving off many rosulate branches, the central more 

 or less erect, 2-4 in. long, the outer spreading, 6-15 in. 

 long, all as a rule §-1 in., but sometimes 1^ in., thick, 

 cylindric, tuberculate, glabrous, green ; tubercles blunt, 

 l~l in. high. Leaves \-l in. long, narrow linear, acute or 

 obtuse, thick, flat or channelled above, very convex 

 beneath, glabrous. Peduncles |-| in. long, in the axils 

 of the tubercles near the ends of the branches, thick, 

 minutely bracteoled, persistent, green. Involucre l-l in. 

 across, glabrous outside ; lobes almost quadrate, denticu- 

 late, pubescent within, glabrous outside, tawny-purple ; 

 glands green, their appendages petaloid, white, palmately 

 S-6-lobed or transversely oblong and denticulate. Ovary 

 almost sessile, bluntly trigonous, glabrous ; styles T \-} in. 

 long, connate to or beyond the middle, erect. 



Fig. 1, involucre, with bracts on pedicel ; 2, the same, from above ; 3, portion 

 of an involucre, showing inflexed lobes and intervening gland with appendages ; 

 4, male flowers, with bracteoles ; 5, female flower ; 6, sketch, from photograph, 

 of an entire plant :— all enlarged except 6, which is much reduced. 



