576 ASCLEPIADE® (Brown). [Xysmalobium. 
the apex, but in dried flowers often about } lin. broad, sometimes 
appearing to be linear-oblong, obtuse, convex on the back and flat 
on the inner face, at others laterally much compressed and as if 
pinched together at the truncate apex, which often angularly 
projects on the inner face, so that the lobe appears somewhat linear- 
subfalcate in side view, with the inner side flattened and the back 
convex ; staminal column about 1 lin. long; anther-appendages 
ovate to suborbicular, obtuse or acute, inflexed upon and concealing 
the small truncate style-apex. Gomphocarpus acerateoides, Sehlechter 
in Engl. Jahrb. xviii. Beibl. 45, 16, and G. ovatus, Schlechter, he, 
20. Asclepias acerateoides, Schlechter in Journ. Bot. 1896, 454, 
and A. scabridifolia, Schlechter, l.c. 455. 
Kananart Recion: Transvaal; De Kaap Flats, near Barberton, 2600 ft., 
Galpin, 664! summit of Saddleback Mountain, near Barberton, 5000 ft., Galpin, 
674! near the top of Mauch Berg, 6600 ft., Atherstone ! 
Eastern ReGion: Swaziland; near Embabaan (Mbabane), 4900 ft., Bolus, 
12142! Burtt Davy, 2768 ! 
Similar to X. Gerrardi, but apparently a much stouter plant, and easily 
recognized by the peculiar gibbous intrusion of the middle of the petals, a 
character not mentioned by Schlechter, whose types of G. acerateoides and G. 
ovatus I have examined, and find to be identical. The differences in the corona- 
lobes mentioned may be observable, but are due to the remarkable changes 
which take place in drying, and are seen to vanish if a sufficient number of 
flowers are examined, but neither in the fresh nor dried flowers do I find any 
trace of the keels described by Schlechter under @. ovatus, which were probably 
raised lines due to shrinkage. 
13. X. Gerrardi (Scott-Elliot in Journ. Bot. 1890, 364) ; plant 
branching at the base; branches simple or sparingly branched, erect 
or perhaps decumbent at the base, more or less pubescent ; leaves 
shortly petiolate, 11-21 in. long, 3-1 in. broad, lanceolate, oblong- 
lanceolate or oblong-ovate, obtuse or acute, varying from acute to 
almost subcordate at the base, thinly and harshly pubescent on both 
sides, slightly scabrid at the margins ; umbels usually 2-4 to a branch, 
occasionally solitary on weak branches, lateral and terminal, pedun- 
culate, 6-14-flowered ; peduneles 1-1 in. long, pubescent on one 
side; bracts 13-2 lin. long, filiform-subulate; pedicels rather slender, 
3-4 lin. long, pubescent; sepals ascending, 14 lin. long, + lin. 
broad, linear-lanceolate, aeute, pubescent ; corolla-lobes suberect, 
13-2 lin. long, about 1 lin. broad, ovate-oblong, obtuse, with 
recurved margins, without a gibbosity on the glabrous inner face, 
more or less pubescent on the back near the apex, yellow or 
yellowish ; corona-lobes arising close to or slightly above the base 
of the staminal column and very distinctly longer than it, erect, 
slightly ineurved, not contiguous, $—14 lin. long, $ to nearly } lin. 
broad, fleshy, oblong-linear, very convex on the back and flattened 
on the inner face or perhaps subterete, not clavate as originally 
described, obtuse; staminal column 1 lin, long; anthers sub- 
quadrate, slightly broader at the base, with orbicular appendages 
inflexed over the truncate style-apex ; follicles not seen, Gompho- 
