PRELIMIXARY LIST OF THE PLANTS OF SOUTHERN 



RHODESIA. 



By Frederick Evles, F.L.S., AI.L.C. 



About four years ago I promised to send the Rhodesia 

 Scientific Association a preHminary catalogue of plants recorded 

 from Southern Rhodesia. Owing to circumstances beyond my 

 control, that promise has not been fulfilled, and the Council of 

 that society has probably long ago given me up as hopeless. I 

 now have pleasure in presenting a provisional list of Rhodesian 

 plants, but my pleasure is much diminished by the knowledge 

 that my work is very imperfect, and falls far short of the ideal 

 I had set. 



The catalogue is a bare list of names, from which arc 

 omitted the numerous synonyms so necessary for the ready iden- 

 tification of species by means of such works of reference as are 

 usually accessible to South Africans. Neither have I been able 

 to include those vernacular names registered, nor the still more 

 important records of localities, altitudes, and dates of flowering 

 and collection, and the names and herbarium numbers of col- 

 lectors. All this material is in my hands, but I have not yet 

 found time to get the complete record arranged for printing. 

 Unfortunately, the catalogue, even in its present form, is not 

 (|uite up to date, as valuable lists of takings by Mr. Alonro, in the 

 X'ictoria District and of Mr. Swynnerton in Melsetter and 

 Uhirinda Forest, have not yet been incorporated. 



The catalogue of Phanerogams has been arranged on 

 Engler's .system, my guide being the " Genera Siphonogamarum " 

 of Drs. De Dalla Torre and Harms, wh.ile the Ferns and their 

 allies have been placed in the order given by Sim in his " Ferns 

 of South Africa." 



So far as I have been able to get access to them, I have 

 incorporated the collections of Kirk, Holub, Baines, iSIeller, 

 Oates, Rand, (ialpin, Flanagan. Cecil, Allen, Monro, Swynnerton, 

 Engler, Eyles. Marloth, Holland, Gibbs, Gardner, Jefifreys, 

 Kolbe, Mundy and Chubb and other less considerable contribu- 

 tors. Doubtless, many additional identifications of Rhodesian 

 ])lants have been made, particularl}> by German botanists, but 

 these I have not had access to, and I can only hope that this list, 

 small and imperfect as it is, may be made the foundation of a 

 more comprehensive and detailed work. 



The present catalogue comprises representatives of 136 

 families, 687 genera, and 1.700 to 1,800 species; to which, as I 

 have said, considerable additions can be made immediately from 

 material in my possession. Further, if I could enlist the sym- 

 pathy and help of those members of the South African Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science who themselves have made 

 collections in Southern Rhodesia, or who know of collections 



