LIXXEAX SOCIETY 0¥ LONDON. 7 



Mr. N. E. Beown, A.L.S., exhibited a photograph and dried 

 specimens of Fockea capensis, Etidl., a plant of considerable interest 

 on account of its great rarity and its apparent great longevity. 

 It was originally described and figured by N. J. Jacquin, a hundred 

 years ago, in his ' Fragmenta Botanica,' p. 31, t. 34. f. 5, as 

 Cynanchum crispum, from a plant which had been introduced 

 from South Africa and cultivated in the Imperial Garden at 

 Schonbrunn. In 1838, Eudlicher, in his ' Iconographia Generum 

 Plantarum," retigured the plant and generically separated it from 

 Cynanclium on account of its remarkable structure. This self- 

 same individual (from which both the above-mentioned figures 

 were made) has been in cultivation at Schonbrunn from Jacquiu's 

 time until now, and is the only example of the species known, 

 since Dr. A. Zahlbruckner states that all attempts to propagate it 

 have failed, and no collector appears to have refound it, the ouly 

 dried specimen in existence, so far as known, being the one 

 exhibited. The living plant was exhibited at the Botanical 

 Congress held at Vienna in 1905, and in the Eeport of that 

 Congress, p. 77, is a note concerning it, where it is stated that 

 the age of the plant is probably about 150 years. But when 

 Jacquin described the plant 100 years ago, he stated that the tuber 

 was about 1 foot long and 6 inches thick ; at the present time, 

 from calculations I have made from the photograph of the plant 

 by comparing the length of the largest leaves on the dried speci- 

 men \^'ith those of the photograph, I find that the tuber is about 

 7-^ inches thick and stands about 12i inches above the ground. 

 As this small increase in size during 100 years has been obtained 

 under the conditions of cultivation, where the plant would obtain 

 more moisture and be likely to groM- more rapidly than in the very 

 dry climate of its natural habitat, it would appear conclusive that 

 its growth is extremely slow, and that the actual age of the indi- 

 vidual in question is probably much more than 150 years. Burchell, 

 in a note with a dried specimen of the very closely allied i^.(7?a6ra, 

 Decne., states that the tuber is sometimes as much as 2 feet in 

 diameter, and, if as slow-growing as F. ccqoensis, this would imply 

 that the plant must attain an age of several centuries. Xoue of 

 the species of Fochea appears to be common, and as the tubers are 

 eaten by the natives and do not seem to produce fruit freely, it 

 it possible that they may be approaching extinction. 



Two other interesting plants are Babiana spathacea, Ker, and 

 Eriosphcfva Ocvhi.s-cati, Less., which are exhibited further to 

 illustrate how very rare or very local some of the South African 

 plants are, since neither of these two has been collected by any 

 botanical traveller since Thunberg found them in 1774, until 

 these specimens were gathered. The Babiana was originally 

 described as Gladiolus spathaceus, Linn, f., Suppl. p. 96, from a 

 specimen collected by Thunberg. The type and the specimen 

 here exhibited are identical with it. An account of the plant will 

 be found in Hooker's ' Icones Plantarum,' vol. xxviii. t. 2710. 



