Tristicha. |: PODOSTEMACE& (Hill). 483 
ovate to elliptic, usually trifarious, about } lin. long, the upper 
sometimes longer and narrower ; flowers solitary, terminal on short 
branches near the apex of the stem; peduncle up to 9 lin. long in 
fruit, terete, rigid, erect ; perianth-segments 3, equal, oblong-elliptic, 
cymbiform, pellucid ; filament compressed ; anthers ovoid, obtuse ; 
ovary shortly stalked, ellipsoid, trigonous ; capsule ellipsoid, 1 lin. 
long ; valves 3-nerved. Weddell in DO. Prodr. xvii. 44; Tulasne 
in Ann. Sci. Nat. 3™° sér. xi. 112, in Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. Par. vi. 
(1852), 186, and in Mart. Fl. Bras. iv. i. 272; Engl. Hochgebirgsfl. 
Trop. Afr. 228; Warming in Kgl. Danske Selsk. Skrifter, ser. 6, ix. 
ii. 107, figs, 1-6, and xi. i. 28, 61, figs. 20-23, eacl. syn. T. trifaria ; 
Baker & C. H. Wright in Dyer, Fl. Trop. Afr. vi. i. 121. T. bryoides, - 
Gardn. in Cale. Journ. Nat. Hist. vii. (1847), 178, and Wight, 
Ie. t, 1920. T. Philocrena, Steud. Nomenel. Bot. ed. 2, ii. 715. T. 
alternifolia, var. pulchella, Warm. l.c. xi. i. 36, Dufourea hypnoides, 
A, St. Hil. in Mém. Mus. Paris, x. (1823), 472. Philocrena pusilla, 
Bong.-in Mém. Acad. Petersb, 6™° sér. i, (1832), 80, t. 6. 
Coast Reaion: Albany Div.; Gwacwaba River, near King-Williams Town, 
submerged or nearly so, Sim, 100! 
CentraL Region: Calvinia Div. ; Doorn River, Dréye, 2991! 
_ Also in Tropical Africa. 
Il. SPHHROTHYLAX, Bischoff. 
(ANASTROPHEA, Wedd.) 
Flowers hermaphrodite, subtended by 2 minute scales. Stamens 2 ; 
filaments united to the apex; anthers 2, sessile at the top of the 
column, 2-celled, or solitary and 4-celled according to Weddell, 
dehiscence longitudinal. Staminodia 2, small, linear. Ovary ovoid, 
8-ribbed ; valves 2, unequal, the larger persistent, the smaller 
deciduous. Seeds ellipsoid, compressed. 
Stems slender and branched, arising from a Marchantia-like base. Leaves 
elongate, laciniate. Spathella: produced both on the thallus and on the elongated 
stems. 
Distris, Species 4, three in Tropical Africa. 
1. S. algiformis (Bisch. ex Krauss in Flora, 1844, 426, t. 1); 
stem $—} in. long, about } lin. broad, flattened, somewhat thickened 
in every part closely applied to substratum, more or less repeatedly 
subdichotomously branched ; branches for the most part spreading ; 
leaves linear-spathulate, about } lin. long; flowers arising from 
axils of branches ; gemmvz (Tulasne) very minute, composed of very 
few scale-like leaves and occasionally scarcely visible; pedicels 
bearing fruits ascending, }—} lin. long, surrounded at the base with 
remnants of withered spathelle ; capsule scarcely $ lin. long, apex 
obtuse, bare or crowned with short subulate stigmas ; valves, the 
smaller with 5 nerves breaking away, the larger with 7 nerves 
persisting on pedicel for some time ; seeds fairly was he — 
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