1000 ASCLEPIADEA (Brown). [ Stapelia. 
[S. bisulca (Riist in Monatsschr. Kakt. vi. 39, not of Donn) ; this is a bybrid, 
quite distinct from S. bisulea, Donn ; corolla 24 in. in diam. ; lobes ovate, 
shortly acuminate, not ciliate, pale greenish-yellow, very thickly covered with 
irregular purple-brown spots, giving the appearance of being reticulated with 
the yellow colour, entirely purple-brown on the disk ; annulus circular, dark 
purple-brown with a few yellow specks; outer corona-lobes oblong-linear, 
3-toothed at the apex, with the middle tooth smallest, pale yellow, dotted on the 
teeth and down the centre with purple-brown, without a basal spot ; immer 
corona-lobes with the outer horn erectly ascending. 
Var. proboscidea (Riist, l.c. 39); corolla 3 in. in diam. ; lobes acuminate into 
rather long tail-like tips, with fewer and more rounded spots than in the above 
form and arranged in longitudinal rows, the disk around the annulus and base of 
the lobes entirely (or suffused with) purple-brown ; annulus subpentagonal, pale 
yellowish, thickly covered with rounded spots of a lighter purple-brown than those 
on the lobes ; corona as in the preceding form.] 
Var. e, clypeata (N. E. Br.); corolla-lobes with or without a microscopic 
ciliation, pale greenish-yellow or sulphur-yellow, with the spots irregularly 
scattered or in longitudinal rows, some of the lower occasionally confluent, but 
without or with very few slender purple-brown lines among them and the basal 
part usually not darker than elsewhere ; outer corona-lobes variably bifid from 
4-3 of the way down, with the teeth varying from stout to slender and from 
parallel to widely diverging, with or more often without a minute tooth in the 
notch ; inner corona-lobes with the horns subequal or the outer shorter than the 
inner, both clavate or the outer scarcely thickened at the apex. S. clypeata, 
J. Donn, Hort. Cantab. ed. 3, 48, and Jacq. Stap. t. 34 ; Schultes, Syst. Veg. vi. 40; 
Spreng. Syst. Veg. i. 838, excl. syn. ; Dietr. Syn. Pl. ii. 885 ; Decne in DC. Prodr. 
viii, 660. S. Bufonis, Sims, Bot. Mag. t. 1676; Lodd. Bot. Cab, t. 382? S. 
quinquenervis, Schultes, Syst. Veg. vi. 87; Decne in DC. Prodr. viii. 658. 
S. variegata, Jacq. Stap. t.39; Thunb. Prodr. 46; Fl. Cap. ed. 2, ii. 170, and ed. 
Schultes, 241; N. E. Br. in Journ. Linn. Soc. xvii. 169, and in Hook. Ic. under 
t. 1907, not of Linn. Orbea clypeata, Haw, Suppl. Pl. Succ. 18; G. Don, Gen. 
Syst. iv. 120. O. quinquenervia, Haw. Syn. Pl. Succ. 88. O. quinquenervis, Loud. 
Hort. Brit. 97 ; G. Don, Gen. Syst. iv. 119. 0. bufonia, Haw. Suppl. Pl. Suce. 18 
(not of Syn. Pl. Succ.). 
Coast Recron : Cape Div. ; Lion Mountain and Table Mountain, Barkly, 3! 
Pillans, 100! and cultivated specimens ! 
The type specimen of Orbea quinquenervia, Haw., in Haworth’s Herbarium at 
Oxford is identical with S. clypeata, J. Donn, and of Jacq. But between this and 
the plant figured by Jacquin as S. variegata I can find no valid distinction, the 
only character is that in typical S. clypeata the teeth of the outer corona are more 
divergent and sometimes, but not always, more slender than in S. variegata, Jacq., 
but I have seen flowers with every possible gradation between these two forms 
and also some in which the teeth are perfectly parallel on some of the lobes and 
very widely diverging on others of the same flower! The small tooth in the 
notch is also occasionally either present or absent in different flowers on the same 
plant or even in the same flower. 
Var. f, mixta (N. E. Br.); corolla 24-33 in. in diam., pale greenish-yellow, 
paler on the annulus, uniformly covered on the lobes with rather small purple- 
brown spots more or less connected on the basal half or beyond by slender purple- 
brown lines between the rugosities or subconfluent, and on the annulus with 
smaller spots or dots ; disk flat or nearly so, annulus varying from nearly circular 
to distinctly pentagonal or somewhat 10-crenate, with a rather broad flattish- 
convex rim ; lobes with or without a ciliation of minute thick white hairs ; outer 
corona-lobes linear-oblong, with parallel sides, variably 2-3-toothed at the os x; 
yellow, dotted with purple-brown on the apical half, some of the dots exten is 
down the margins and others down the centre to a larger spot at the base ; per 
corona-lobes with horns of equal length, the outer ascending ; otherwise as in the — 
