1020 ASCLEPIADE (Brown). [Piaranthus. 
Var. y, fuscatus (N. E. Br.) ; corolla 14-14 in. in diam. ; lobes about $ in. long, 
2% lin. broad, lanceolate, acuminate, dark purple (or dark crimson ?) with very 
numerous slender irregular transverse and labyrinthine greenish-yellow lines and 
markings ; tips of the corona-lobes not crossing each other ; otherwise as in the 
type. 
Coast Reaton: Oudtshoorn Div. ; hills near Oudtshoorn, Pillans, 691 ! 
Willowmore Div. ; near Willowmore, Murloth, 4376! Var. B: Oudtshoorn Div. ; 
hills near Oudtshoorn, Pillans! Var. y: Oudtshoorn Div. ; nine miles along the 
road from Oudtshoorn to George, Pillans, 686 ! 
According to Dr. Marloth ‘‘ the flowers have a strong scent of Valerian.” Partly 
described from flowers in fluid. 
5. P. decorus (N. E. Br. in Journ. Linn. Soc. xvii. 163) ; stems 
decumbent, 1-1} in. long, or under cultivation sometimes very much 
longer, }—? in. thick, obscurely or very obtusely 4-angled, oblong, 
with 3-5 small tubercle-like teeth along each angle, glabrous, 
greyish-green, or under cultivation green, slightly glaucous ; flowers 
in pairs above the middle of the stems, erect ; pedicels 4—} in. long ; 
sepals about 14 lin. long, ovate-lanceolate, acute or acuminate, 
glabrous ; corolla 1-1} in. in diam., rotate, without a distinct tube, 
lobed to 3 of the way down ; lobes 5-6 lin. long, 2 lin. broad at the 
base, lanceolate, acute, with revolute margins at the apical part, 
glabrous on the back, velvety-puberulous on the inner face, not 
ciliate, yellowish, dotted with dark purple-brown ; corona-lobes 
about 1 lin. long, closely incumbent upon the backs of the anthers 
and shorter than or slightly exceeding them, lanceolate or ovate, 
varying (even in the same flower) from acute to irregularly toothed 
at the apex, dorsally produced at the base into a short transversely 
rectangular crest, truncate or irregularly toothed at the rather 
acute-edged dorsal margin, with slight ridges from the edge to the 
inflexed part of the lobe, yellow, not spotted. P. serrulatus, 
N. E. Br. lc., and P. decorus and P. serrulatus, N. E. Br. in Gard. 
Chron. 1879, xii. 9. ' P. decorus, K. Schum. in Engl. und Prantl, 
Pflanzenfam. iv. ii. 277. Stapelia decora, Masson, Stap. 19, t. 26 ; 
Willd. Sp. Pl. i. 1290; Pers. Syn. Pl. i. 280 ; Poir. Encyel. vii. 387 
Ait. Hort. Kew. ed. 2, ii. 93 ; Schultes, Syst. Veg. vi. 42 ; Spreng. Syst. 
Veg. i. 840 ; Dietr. Syn. Pl. ii. 886; Decne in DC. Prodr. viii. 661 ; 
Loud. Encyel. Pl. 200, fig. 3332. 8. serrulata, Jacq. Stap. t. ifs 
Willd. Enum. Pl. Hort. Berol. 286 ; Poir. Encycl. Suppl. v._ 234; 
Schultes, Syst. Veg. vi. 47; Spreng. Syst. Veg. i. 840 ; Link, Enum. 
Pl. Hort. Berol. i. 257 ; Dietr. Syn. Pl. ii. 886 ; Deene in DC. Prodr. 
viii. 658. Obesia decora, Haw. Syn. Pl. Succ. 43 ; Sweet, Hort. Brit. 
ed. 1, 278; G. Don, Gen. Syst. iv. 121. 0. serrulata, Sweet, Hort. 
Brit. ed. 1,278. Orbea decora, Steud. Nom. ed. 2, ii. 222. Caralluma 
decora and C. serrulata, Schlechter in Journ. Bot. 1898, 478. Carun- 
cularia? serrulata, G. Don, Gen. Syst. iv. 122. Caruncularia serrata, 
Decne in DC. Prodr. viii. 658 (wrongly quoted as Haw, by Decne). 
Sourn Arrica: without locality, Masson, cultivated specimen ! 
_ Described from a specimen cultivated in 1813 (probably introduced by Masson), 
in which T find that whilst most of the eorona-lobes are entire at the apex, some of 
