398 THE GENUS BORBONIA LINN. LEGUMINOS^. 



sperma, however, the pod resembles that of an Aspalathus. The 

 species named by Marloth* B. pinifoUa (PI. XXXV, Fig. A) 

 belongs to the above section of the genus Aspalathus. 



The species of Borbonia are essentially plants of the Wes- 

 tern Province, and more than half the number of known species 

 are found in the Ceres, Tulbagh, Cape and Caledon Divisions. 

 Two species, namely, B. villosa and B. mtdtiflora, have not been 

 recorded further south than Porterville Road, near Tulbagh, and 

 are apparently confined to the mountains of Calvinia, Clan- 

 william, Piquetberg, Ceres and Tulbagh. Borbonia lanceolata 

 and its varieties has the widest distribution. A well-defined 

 variety (var. robusta\) has been recorded by Pearson from the 

 Khamiesberg, in South-West Africa, and from Ceres. The 

 species then appears in the Western and South-Eastern coastal 

 districts to the Albany Division. No records are known of the 

 occurrence of any species north of the Langeberg Range, 

 though it is very probable that the genus will be met with on 

 the Zwartbergen when this range is better explored. 



My thanks are due to Mr. J. Hutchinson, of Kew, for send- 

 ing me descriptions of four species (B. monosperma, latifolia, 

 complicata and alpestris) which were not represented in any 

 South African herbarium. He also furnished me with records 

 of the species from the Kew Herbarium, which has enabled me 

 to extend the geography. 



Borbonia Linn. 



Calyx lobes equal, rarely the abaxial lobe longer, acute or 

 pungent. Petals clawed ; the vexillum, sometimes also the ate 

 and carina, hairy, very rarely all glabrous. Stamens monadel- 

 phous with anthers of two different sizes. Ovary sessile, rarely 

 subsessile, one to many seeded; style arcuate; stigma terminal 

 and capitate. Legume linear or lanceolate, compressed, acute, 

 equal at the base, very rarely obliquely-ovate at the base ; valves 

 coriaceous. 



Shrubs or suffrutices, rarely decumbent, glabrous or rarely 

 villous. Leaves simple, entire, usually pungent at the apex and 

 often cordate, amplexicaul or perfoliate at the base, glabrous or 

 rarely villous, rigid, many-nerved, with smooth or toothed 

 margins. Flowers yellow, often turning reddish with age, 

 solitary, shortly racemose or subcapitate or subumbellate, axillary 

 or terminal. Bracts and bracteoles often setaceous. 



Leaves more or less densely villous ; branches 



slender, diffuse, laxly leafy. i. villosa. 



Leaves not villous. 



* Trans. Roy. Soc. S.A., II., p. 238, 



