234 SYNOPSIS or the African species of xerophyta. 



pical Africa, on the Semokhie River, where they call it " Elephant's 

 grass," Baines ! 



5. X Melleri, Baker, n. sp. —Stem two inches thick, the outer 

 half a dense mass of brown sheaths, consisting of fibres connected by 

 short threads. Leaves 3-6 in a tuft, subulate, or linear- triquetrous, 

 4-5 inches long, varying from half a line to an eighth of an inch broad, 

 entirely glabrous, the ribs fine and close, the edges and upper part of the 

 keel scabrous. Scapes 1-2 to a tuft, 2-3 inches long, wiry, green in 

 the lower, black in the upper half, with a few of the minute bristly 

 hairs beneath the ovary. Ovary oblong, \ inch long, clothed, as in 

 the last, with ascending minute brown bristly hairs. Limb an inch 

 long, the divisions lanceolate, naked on the outside. Anthers sessile, 

 slender, half as long as the limb. Manganja hills. Dr. Me Her ! 

 (Livingstone's Zambesi expedition). 



6. X Spekei^ Baker. — " A shrub 6 feet high, with a stem 4 or 5 

 feet in girth at the base." Branches woody, ^-f inch thick, clothed 

 below the tuft of leaves with distantly imbricated dry, grey-brown, 

 pilose, sharply tricuspidate sheaths. Leaves 5-6 in a tuft, linear, 6-8 

 inches long, ^-^ inch broad, very rigid in texture, pilose near the base, 

 the rest naked, the ribs fine, distinct, and close, the keel in the 

 upper part and margins distinctly serrulate. Scapes 2-3 to a tuft, 2-3 

 inches long, clothed in the upper half with hard black prominent 

 glands. Mature ovary round, black, with scattered black glands, 

 similar to those of the scape, but no bristles. Perianth-segments 

 lanceolate, an inch long, but naked on the outside. The Bass Rock, 

 6^ south latitude, at an elevation above sea-level of 4000 feet. Capt. 

 Grant, 628 ! 



7. X. elegans. Baker. — Vellosia elegans, Oliver Bot. Mag., t. 5803. 

 Talbotia elegans, Balf., Proc. Edin. Bot. Soc, ix., 192. Hypoxis 

 barbacenioides, Ilarv. MSS. A decumbent woody stem, a few inches 

 long, a quarter of an inch thick, clothed with bases of old leaves slit 

 into fibres. Leaves closely placed over the top 2 or 3 inches of the 

 stem, linear, spreading, ^-^ foot long, 3-6 lines broad, glabrous, sub- 

 coriaceous, with many close distinct ribs on each side of a pronounced 

 costa, which, like the margins, is distinctly serrulate towards the top. 

 Pedicels 5-6 inches long, slender, one-flowered, 5-6 inches long, 

 naked throughout. Ovary oblong, sharply angled, 3-4 lines long, 

 quite destitute of glands or bristles. Perianth-limb 6-9 lines deep, 

 the divisions lanceolate, purplish-white, quite naked both inside and 

 out. Anthers ^ inch long, yellow, sessile, forming a valvate ring 

 round the style. Style 4 lines long, filiform, with a capitate stigma. 

 Fruit crustaceous, naked, strongly ribbed, naked, indehiscent. Banks 

 of mountain streams, Zulu, Natal. Gerrard, 1555 ! Edge of Kloof 

 at Field's Hill, Natal, 1000 feet above sea level, Sanderson, 598 ! 

 Figured in the '* Botanical Magazine" from Natal specimens grown by 

 Mr. Fox Talbot, after whom, on the supposition that it was the type 

 of a new genus, it was named by Dr. Balfour. 



8. X minuta, Baker, n. sp. — Caudex the thickness of a quill, 

 short, woody, decumbent, clothed with the imbricated scariose bases 

 of the withered old leaves. Leaves 10 or 12 over the upper inch of 

 the stem, patent or squarrose, linear-complicate, 1^-2 inches long, ^ 

 inch broad, glabrous, showing 5 or 6 distinct ribs on each side of the 



