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X. On Craterostigma p];jtoilum, Hochst., a rare Flant from Somali-Land. By 

 H. Marshall WaiiSK, B.Sc.y F.M.S., F.L.S., JProfessor of Botany in the University 

 of Cambridge, and Miss E. D/le, Bfeiffer Student, Girt on College. 



(Plates XXXIV. & XXXV.) 



Read 3rd November, 1898. 



In May 1897 a number of living plants collected in Somali-Land were received at 

 the Cambridge Botanic Garden from Mrs. Lort Phillips, who presented them to this 

 University. Among these was the following, and as it has flowered several times with 

 us this summer, and has now (July 189S) ripened its first capsule of seeds *, we are able 

 to give a fairly complete account of it even from the comparatively small quantity of 

 material at our disposal. 



It is a herbaceous perennial, the general habit, size, and mode of flowering of which 

 remind one of a Binguicula, though it is very different in details, as will be shown 

 (PI. XXXIV. fig. 1) : but perhaps its most striking feature is the roots, to which our 

 attention was drawn by Mr. Lynch long before the plant flowered ; these are bright coral- 

 red or scarlet, like vermilion sealing-wax, and present a startling contrast to the black 

 soil used when repotting the plants. 



Various suggestions have been entertained as to the best mode of growing the plant ; 

 on the whole it seems to do best in the Water-lily House, close to the glass. 



The external features of the adult flowering plant may be described as follows : — 



Hoots numerous, fibrous, rather thick, and slightly branched, arising from the under- 

 side of the rhizome and the bases of older leaves ; white when young, the older ones 

 scarlet with white tips. (Figs. 1 & 2, PL XXXIV.) 



Stem a short, red, oblique or horizontal, creeping, subterranean rhizome, giving 

 off roots below and rough with crowded leaf-scars above. It is terminated by a 

 rosette of leaves at the surface of the ground, and gives off similar rosettes as lateral 

 buds or offsets from the axils of the lowermost leaves. These offsets afford a ready 

 means of vegetative propagation, soon forming rhizomes -^ to 1 inch long, like the parent 

 stem. (Fig. 2.) 



Leaves few, simple, entire, exstipulate, sub-opposite, and crowded into radical rosettes, 

 the internodes being practically obsolete. Lamina rhomboid-oval, and often slightly 

 oblique, obtuse, about 1-1 J inches long ; tapering below into a short, broad, flat petiole 

 with a wide insertion, but not sheathing. Margins ciliate, especially when young. 

 Venation somewhat like that of Blantago\ principal ribs about 7 to 9, thick and 



* These have now germinated (March 1899). 

 SECOND SERIES. — BOTANY, VOL. V. 3 P 



