of importance, as indicating the danger that may attend 
reliance upon characters related with function in the 
discrimination of forms or groups of plants. The species 
now described, EL. aggregata, is a native of Angola, where 
it was discovered by Mr. J. Gossweiler, by whom seeds of 
the plant were presented to Kew in 1915. It shares 
with LE. spissa, 8. Moore, a species from British East 
Africa, the character of densely aggregated flower-heads, 
which separates the two from all the other known 
members of the genus. The West African plant is 
readily distinguished from the East African one by the 
characters pointed out by Mr. Hutchinson. The 
material for our plate has been derived from one of the 
plants raised from Mr. Gossweiler’s seed. The species in 
cultivation reaches a height of from five to six feet, 
branches freely and forms a striking object when 
furnished with its numerous terminal showy flower- 
heads. As it blossoms in this country in midwinter, | 
and is a perennial, it is likely to become a popular green- 
house plant. Cuttings are readily struck, and from these 
full-sized plants may be grown in a single season. 
Description.—Herb, perennial; stem laxly leafy, softly woolly tomentose ; 
lower internodes 3 in. long, upper 2-3 in. long. Leaves petioled, ovate- 
lanceolate, rather acute, base cuneate, blade 34-5 in. long, 13-2} in. wide, 
thinly papery, serrate, finely puberulous above, more distinctly so beneath ; 
lateral nerves about 15 on each side, leaving the midrib at a wide angle, 
slender, finely hairy beneath; petiole 2-1 in. long, finely puberulous and with 
a few longer hairs. Inflorescence trichotomously branched ; the heads densely 
clustered ; main peduncles up to 1} in. long, finely softly puberulous. Heads 
sessile, about 8-flowered; involucral bracts green with hyaline margins, 
somewhat ovate, acute, up to 2 in. long. Flowers blue, flushed with rose ; 
corolla about 3 in. long, its lobes linear, acute; anthers exserted. Achenes 
‘ compressed, glabrous ; pappus-setae few, caducous, barely } in. long, barbellate. 
TaB. 8755.—Fig. 1, portion of an inflorescence; 2, flower-bud; 3, a pappus- 
seta; 4, stamens; 5, style-arms :—all enlarged. 
