290 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



belong to Hamodoracete, and Molineria may best be considered a 

 subc^enns of Curculvjo, if we do not accord generic importance to 

 the occasionally beaked ovary, but rather to the character of the 

 fruit being an indehiscent berry instead of a circumscissile dehiscent 

 capsule. To these two genera, which comprise the tribe of Hypox- 

 idecB, I propose to add a third, by reviving Salisbury's genus lanfhe 

 for the glabrous species included in Hiipoxis. This splitting has 

 already been indicated by Mr. Baker in his Synopsis, by grouping 

 the species of Hypod-is in two subgenera, lanthe and Eu-hypoxis. 

 In the former are sunk Fahricia Tiiunb. (in part), lanthe Salisb., 

 Spiluxene, Salisb. ; in the latter are sunk Xiobea Willd., Franque- 

 villea ZolL, Platyzyya Lallem. 



The presence or absence of pubescence in a group of species is 

 not in itself, of course, a distinctive generic character ; but an 

 examination of the available material certainly shows that the 

 other characters adduced are constant in many series of specimens. 

 Unfortunately the glabrous species of Hypoxis are not showy plants, 

 and no living specimens are available for dissection. There are 

 none under cultivation either in the bulb-pits or in the ranges in 

 Kew Gardens. Several of the hairy species are, however, under 

 cultivation ; and the examination of herbarium-specimens shows 

 the constant differences in Horal structure exhibited by the two 

 groups. Mr. R. Schlechter has recently pointed out''- that geo- 

 graphically as well as ecologically in South Africa the distribution 

 of the entirely glabrous and of the hairy species respectively is in- 

 teresting. The former occur in south-west Namaqua-land and the 

 higher western region of Cape Colony, but fail altogether in the 

 eastern region, and collectively are shade-plants, occurring gener- 

 ally at lower elevations, and even near the sea-level, in contrast to 

 the higher range attained by the hairy species. 



The characters adduced by Salisbury for the separation of 

 Lanthe, Spiloxene, and Hypoxis, though not borne out in the exami- 

 nation of a series of specimens, sufficiently indicate his critical 

 acumen in the examination of plants, and the soundness of his 

 views as to the fundamental characters which should serve for the 

 separation of genera. The following remarks are transcribed from 

 Salisbury's Liriogamw, a book not readily obtainable, in the section 

 relating to Hypoxuiew : — " lanthe has an annual bulb, dilated at the 

 base into a jagged margin like that of Hesperanthus ; its leaves are 

 attenuated, in one species striped with white down the middle ; 

 pericarpium unilocular from the earliest period ; internal surface of 

 petals yellow without a large spot at their base ; filaments inserted 

 on the receptacular disc as close as possible to the style, and per- 

 fectly distinct from the petals ; rachis of anthers confluent with the 

 filament ; stigmata united ; and its seeds are inserted by compara- 

 tively long funiculi all over the surface of three very large bolstered 

 parietal placentas. Spiloxene, so named from the dark spot at the 

 base of its petals, agrees with lanthe m its root, but has longer and 

 more attenuated leaves, more or less scarious and crenulated at the 



Engler's Jahrbuch, xxvii. p. 88 (1899). 



