396 NYCTAGINE# (Cooke). [ Boerhaavia. 
4. B. pentandra (Burch. Trav. S. Afr. i. 432); a procumbent 
plant ; stems long, herbaceous, terete, glabrous or pubescent, often 
trailing amongst grass and giving off suberect branches from the 
axils ; leaves shortly petiolate, ?—2 in. long, }-1} in. broad, broadly 
ovate or suborbicular, obtuse or (rarely) subacute, finely serrate, 
often shortly apiculate, base truncate or shallowly cordate ; 
peduncles much longer than the leaves, axillary and terminal, stout ; 
flowers in distant whorls (rarely reduced to 1 whorl) usually about 
6 flowers in each whorl, forming a long panicle above the leaves ; 
pedicels 2—5 lin. long, persistent after the flowers fall; bracteoles 
linear-subulate, reaching 2 lin. long or more ; deciduous portion of 
the perianth above the ovary reaching 5 lin. long, funnel-shaped, 
nearly 4 lin. across at the mouth ; persistent portion of the perianth 
} in, long or more, not distinctly pentagonal, with a row of globose 
glands at the top and often on the sides of the tube; stamens 3, 
Sout Arrica : without locality, Zeyher, 1433 ! 
Coast Reaion: Queenstown Div. ; near Queenstown, 3700 ft., Galpin, 1801! 
CENTRAL Reaion : Hopetown Div. ; banks of the Orange River near Hopetown, 
Bolus, 1826 ! 
Katanarr Recion: Bechuanaland ; Kosifontein, Burchell, 2556 ! 2571! 2597! 
Batlapin Territory, Holub! Griqualand West; along the Vaal River, Burchell, 
1765! MacOwan, 1215! west of the Vaal River, Shaw! between Kimberley and 
the Vaal River, Schenck, 808 ! Griquatown, Burchell, 1897! 1954! Orange River 
Colony, various localities,~ Hutton! Mrs. Barber, 761! Sanderson! Burke ! 
Transvaal.; various localities, Baines ! Rogers, 2383! Nelson, 115! Galpin, 1241! 
Bolus, Herb. Norm, Austr.-Afr. 1346! Schlechter, 4339! Burtt-Davy, 1821! 
EasTERN Reoion : Natal ; between Umcomaas River and Umlazi River, Dréye ! 
The Bluff, Sanderson, 75! Gueinzius! Mooi River Valley, 2300 ft., Sutherland ! 
Gerrard, 1488! near Weenen, Wood, 4441! near Clairmont, Haygarth in Herb. 
ase 4495! Portuguese East Africa; Ressano Garcia, 1000 ft., Schlechter, 
Mrs. Barber remarks concerning this plant in a letter to Dr. Harvey, dated 
March 16th, 1865, which is preserved in Harvey’s Herbarium, Trinity College, 
Dublin, that the plant is much “ valued for its nutritious properties as an herbage 
plaut, and is called Veld Batatas, from its resemblance to that plant ; when it is 
plentiful, stock of all kinds fatten rapidly and thrive well ; these plants are large 
and prostrate, and very much branched and jointed, throwing out at every joint 
an almost upright little stem with an umbel of crimson flowers.” 
Also in Tropical Africa. 
III, PHAOPTILUM, Radlk. 
Perianth funnel-shaped, divided to the middle into 4 (rarely 5) 
ovate spreading petaloid lobes. Stamens 8, shortly exserted ; 
filaments united at the base into a short fleshy cup ; anthers versa- 
tile, oblong. Ovary stipitate, the stipes free from the perianth ; 
