356 ERICACEH (Brown). [ Acrostemon. 
spurless; ovary ellipsoid, acute, 1- (very rarely 2-) celled, glabrous ; 
style much exserted, 14 lin. long, glabrous, stigma simple. Minckea 
bruniades, and F. eriocephala, Klotzsch in Linnea, xii. 238. Grise- 
bachia eriocephala and G. bruniades, Benth. in DC. Prodr. vii. 
702. 
Sourn AFRIcA: without locality, Ecklon § Zeyher ! 
Coast Reeion: Stellenbosch Div.; Hottentots Holland Mountains, near 
Lowrys Pass, Bolus, 5555! 9928! Caledon Div. ; mountains between French 
Hoek and Villiersdorp, Bolus, 5108! mountains near Genadendal, Drege, 7804! 
Houw Hoek Mountains, Galpin, 8535 ! Schlechter, 5439! 
This plant differs from all other species of Acrostemon in its almost constantly 
l-celled ovary, although flowers with a 2-celled ovary certainly occur, and 
Klotzsch has characterized the genus Finckea as being 2-celled, but it must be 
of rare occurrence, As the ovary has a somewhat oblique appearance as if 
1 cell-had aborted, I regard it as a degencrate species of Acrostemon, from — 
which it differs in no other character than the ovary. The type of Finckea 
bruniades has its anthers faded to a paler brown and more spreading leaves 
than in F. eriocephala, but there is no specific distinction, and, excepting the 
paler anthers, is identical with Galpin, 3535. 
Xa. THAMNUS, Klotzsch. 
Bracts 3, adpressed to the calyx. Calyx campanulate, deeply 
4-toothed. Corolla hypogynous, suburceolate-ovoid or -obovoid, 
minutely 4-lobed at the contracted mouth. Stamens 4, hypogynous, 
free, exserted; filaments linear; anthers basifixed, divided to 7 of 
the way down, cells parallel. Ovary seated on a disk, at first with 
4 compressed angles, becoming globose-obovoid and obscurely angular 
in fruit, the grooves between the angles bulging out and disappear- 
ing, l-celled, with 4 ovules suspended from the apex of a free 
central 4-angled placenta; style exserted, filiform; stigma simple. 
Capsule thin, separating into 4 valves. Seeds 4 or fewer by abortion, 
pendulous from the apex of the placenta. 
A small shrub with the habit of Erica; leaves grooved down the convex 
back; flowers small, 1-7 together, axillary and terminal on short lateral 
branchlets, 
DisrriB. Species 1, endemic. 
This genus has been combined with Simocheilus by Bentham and others 
following him, but no author appears to have correctly understood the structure 
of the ovary, which (together with that of Lagenocarpws) differs from that 
of all other genera of South African Ericacew in having a free central placenta, 
unattached to the side wall of the ovary. I have examined the flowers of 
numerous specimens and always found the ovary to be as above described ; when 
young it is sharply 4-angled, with the sides doubled in towards the placenta, 
but I cannot find any trace of dissepiments connecting them with it. After 
fertilization, the sides bulge out and the angles almost disappear. 
1. T. multiflorus (Klotzsch in Linnea, xii. 235); about 2 ft. 
high (Burchell) ; branchlets erect, minutely subtomentose-puberulous ; 
leaves 3-nate, ereet, imbricate, 1-3 lin. long with the petiole, linear, 
acute, glabrous; flowers subsessile or distinctly pedicellate ; bracts » 
