Fockea. | ASCLEPIADEZ (Brown). 779 
the petiole at the base, quite glabrous or thinly puberulous, with 
minute curved hairs above and on the midrib beneath ; flowers 2-6 
together in sessile clusters at the nodes; pedicels +-3 lin. long, 
whitish-puberulous; sepals 3-14 lin. long, subulate to narrowly 
lanceolate, acute, whitish-puberulous; corolla-tube }—? lin. long ; 
lobes very spreading, 4-2 in. long, 3—} lin. broad at the base, linear 
or linear-filiform from being revolute at the margins and somewhat 
twisted, whitish-puberulous or minutely tomentose on the back, 
glabrous on the inner face, apparently greenish ; corona about 4 
times as long as the corolla-tube, white, 24-3 lin. long, tubular for 
half its length, variably divided above, sometimes into 5 long trifid 
segments alternating with 5 short teeth, sometimes into many 
irregular teeth about } lin. long, with 5 long simple linear-filiform 
or trifid processes arising within the tube at or near its top, and in 
front of these or of the trifid segments arise below the middle or 
near the base of the tube 5 other filiform processes, usually hooked 
or revolute at the apex and varying from half as long to as long as the 
tube ; lateral teeth of the trifid segments or processes one quarter as 
long as the linear-filiform middle tvoth ; anther-appendages reaching 
to about the middle of the corona-tube. K. Schum. in Engl. and 
Prantl, Pflanzenfam. iv. ii, 296 ; Schlechter in Journ. Bot. 1898, 487. 
Brachystelma circinatum, Marloth in Engl. Jahrb. x. 244, not of 
E. Meyer. 
Sout Arrica ; without locality, Zeyher, 1138! 
Katanart Recion : Griqualand West ; Groot Boetsap, Marloth, 1008. Orange 
River Colony ; Rhenoster Kop, Burke, 510! Zeyher, 510! between Rhenoster 
River and Vaal River, Zeyher, 1135! Transvaal ; hills near Potgeiters Rust, Bolus, 
11014! © 
A specimen collected by Burchell (2465) near the sources of the Kuruman River 
in Bechuanaland, may belong to this species, but the flowers are only in very young 
bud. Ona note with the specimen, Burchell states that it is called “‘ Gamroon or 
Gamrun” by the Hottentots, and ‘‘ has a root as large and of the shape of a large 
turnip, eatable, white, soft, spongy, sweet and watery (as a water-melon), and a 
fortunate resource for a thirsty traveller. The herb is milky, but the root is not 
so. It is usually eaten raw.” 
4. F. glabra (Decne in DC. Prodr. viii. 545); rootstock partly 
above ground, very large, up to 2 ft. in diam. (Burchell), more or 
less tuberculate, light brown; stems up to 2 ft. or more long, 
twining, procumbent or straggling, often branched, minutely 
puberulous on the younger parts; leaves often with leaf-tufts or 
very short leafy branchlets in their axils, usually spreading, some- 
times deflexed ; petiole 4-2 lin. long ; blade }—1} in. long, ¢—} in. 
broad, elliptic, lanceolate, oblong, oblanceolate or more or less 
obovate, acute, or obtuse or rounded and shortly apiculate at the 
apex, cuneate or rounded at the base, often wavy at the margins, 
glabrous on both sides, subcoriaceous; cymes subsessile or on 
puberulous peduncles up to } in. long, 2-6-flowered, lateral at the 
nodes ; bracts minute ; pedicels 14-2 lin. long, minutely puberulous, 
as are the 3-1 lin.-long lanceolate acute sepals ; corolla puberulous 
