201 

 THE GENUS FAGARA 



AS BEPKESENTED IN THE SoUTH AfRICA:N HeEBARIA. 



Br Ikez C. Verdooen, Division of Botany, Pretoria, 



The genera Fagara (Syst. ed. 10, 897 ; 1759) and Zanthoxylum 

 (Hort. Cliff. 487 ; 1737) were founded by Linnaeus, who appears to 

 have used the number of parts in the perianth for separating them : 

 in Fagara the flowers are 4-merous, in Zanthoxylum 5-merous. 

 Thunberg (Fl. Cap. 141 ; 1823) followed Linnaeus, and when describ- 

 ing the South African species placed them under Fagara, DeCandolle 

 (Prodr. i. 725 ; 1824) sunk Fagara under ZanthoxylMrn, which 

 genus he placed in Miitacece, and in this he was followed by Oliver 

 (Fl. Trop. Afr. i. 304; 1868). Harvey (FI. Cap. i. 445; 1860) 

 adopted the same view, but placed the genus in Xanthoxylew, although 

 later (Gen. S. Afr. PL ed. 2, 45 ; 1868) he put it under Butacece as 

 a separate tribe. Bentham and Hooker (Gen. PL i. 297 ; 1862) also 

 combined the genera under Zanthoxylum in Hutacecd : Engler, 

 however (Engl. & Prantl, Pflanzenfam. iii. 4, 115 ; 1897), reverted 

 to the two Linnean genera, and this arrangement has been adopted by 

 all subsequent authors. 



All the Soutli African species which Wight and Amott included 

 under the genus Rhetsa were placed by Engler (/. c.) in the genus 

 Fagara under the section Macqueria, which is characterized by 

 having 4-merous flowers. 



Engler (Bot. Jahrb. xxiii. 149 ; 1896) describes two species from 

 Pondoland, F. Bachmannii and F. multifoliolata, I have not seen 

 these, but none of the material which has passed through my hands 

 agrees with the descriptions. The specific name capensis will have 

 to stand for the plants called Xanthoxylon capense and Thunhergii 

 in the Flora Gapensis as it was the first name used by Thunberg. 



In the Flora Capensis Harvey divides the South African speci- 

 mens into two species with a possible third. Xanthoxylon capense 

 Harv. is separated from X. Thunhergii DC. on the fact that the 

 petioles are unarmed ; I have found that this character is not constant. 

 Through the kindness of the Director of the South African Museum, 

 Cape Town, I have had the opportunity of examining Ecklon and 

 Zeyher's specimens quoted by Harvey, which are mounted on sheets 

 written up by Harvey. On the leaves of one of the specimens (^E- Sf Z. 

 921) quoted as X. capense there are decided spines. I have noticed on 

 specimens growing in the garden of the Division of Botany, Pretoria, 

 and on many herbarium specimens, that while some of the leaves are 

 armed, others on the same tree are devoid of thorns. Sim points this 

 out on a label attached to one of his specimens ; the coppice shoot is 

 armed with numerous spines, of which there is no trace on the older 

 foliage. 



Mr. T. E.. Sim (^Forests and Flora of Cape Golonyy 155) is 

 of opinion that the species in Fl. Capensis can all be reduced to one 

 variable species, and my examination of the material in the South 

 African herbaria supports this view. Specimens collected from 

 different localities differ in general appearance, but I have not been 

 Journal of Botany. — Vol. 57. [August, 1919.] q 



