‘Sericocoma.| AMARANTACE (Cooke and Wright). 417 
or tomentose; ovule 1, suspended from the apex of an elongate 
funicle; style about as long as the ovary; stigma capitellate. 
Utricle included in the perianth, membranous, indehiscent. Seed 
inverse, oblong or suborbicular, compressed ; embryo annular. 
Herbs or undershrubs of various habit ; leaves linear or oblong (rarely obovate), 
sessile, entire, alternate or alternate and opposite on the same plant. 
Distris. Species 6, in Tropical and South Africa. 
Staminodes present ; leaves alternate ; flowers in heads 
6-8 lin. long ae we (1) pungens. 
Staminodes absent; leaves alternate and opposite ; 
flowers in spikes reaching 24 in. long ne ... (2) avolans, 
1. 8. pungens (Fenzl in Linnea, xvii. 326) ; a low much-branched 
rigid undershrub ; branches subterete, pubescent ; leaves alternate, 
subsessile, 3-5 lin. long, 1-1? lin. broad, obovate-oblong, thick and 
fleshy, shortly mucronulate ; nerves obscure; heads of flowers 
terminal, globose or ovate, 6-8 lin. long, 5-6 lin. broad, with much 
fine pale brown hair; bracteoles unequal, the longer reaching 
4 lin. long, spinously aristate; perianth 3? lin. long; sepals 5, 
unequal, the 2 outer longer than the inner, 3-nerved, all spinously 
aristate and clothed with soft hairs ; stamens 5; filaments 1 lin. 
_ long, narrowly linear to the base ; anthers small, oblong ; staminodes 
small, ovate-oblong ; ovary globose, $ lin. in diam., villous ; style 
up to 1 lin. long, slender ; stigma small, capitate ; seeds not seen. 
Moquin in DC. Prodr. xiii. ii. 308 ; Baker & C. B. Cl. in Dyer, Fl. 
Trop. Afr. vi. i. 41. S. pungens, var. longearistata, Schinz in Engl. 
Jahrb. xxi. 181. 
Western Reaion: Little Namaqualand; hills by the Orange River, near 
Verleptpram, Drége! 
Also in Tropical Africa. 
2. 8. avolans (Fenzl in Linnwa, xvii. 328) ; 1-1} ft. high ; stems 
branched ; branches glabrous or puberulous ; leaves opposite and 
alternate, sessile or subsessile, 1 in. long, 14 lin. broad, linear or 
linear-oblong, acute, shortly mucronate, glabrous, thick, subfleshy ; 
flowers in cylindric obtuse simple terminal spikes 1-2} in. long, at 
first pale yellowish, then ash-coloured ; partial inflorescences usually 
of 1 fertile without infertile flowers ; bracteoles hyaline, ovate- 
VOL. V.—SECT. I. 
