16 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE FLORA OF SOUTH AFRICA. 



When looking through some Asclepiads in the Herbarium of the 

 British Museum, I came across a plant on which Mr. Eidley had 

 recently founded a new genus, SpUadocon/s. It struck me at once 

 as being very like Pentasachmp. This induced me to compare the 

 species of the latter genus more closely, and after careful exami- 

 nation of several flowers I came to the conclu*;ion that not only 

 Ridley's plant but also P. Championi Benth. could not be kept 

 distinct from P. caudata Wall. P. Chcmvpioni has, with the 

 exception of its less elongated leaf-tips, no character which would 

 justify its specific separation from P. caudata, a plant which, in 

 regard to the form of the corona-scales, seems somewhat variable, 

 as I have noticed some of them with more or less crenulate tips, as 

 well as others which were more deeply toothed. 



As the two Chinese species published by Decaisne from imperfect 

 material came from a region that is now pretty well explored, it 

 seems probable that both will either prove identical with the plant 

 (P. Championi) described by Bentham from the same region, or will 

 not belong to Pentasachme at all. We should thus have the genus 

 reduced again to its two original species, with the following 

 synonymy : — 



Pentasachme Wallichii Wight, Contrib. to Bat. hid. (1853), 60; 

 Delessert, Ic. Select, v. (1846), t. 87; Dene, in DC. Prod. viii. 

 (1843), 627; Hook. f. Fl. Br. hid. iv. (1885), 28. 



Pentasachme caudata Wall, ex Wight, /. c. (1834), 60 ; Dene. 

 I. c. (1843), 627 ; Hook. f. /. c (1885), 28. P. Championi Benth. in 

 Hook. Kew Journ. Bat. v. 64 (1853); Fl. Hongkong. 228 (1861); 

 Hemsl. in Journ. Linn. Soc. Bot. xxvi. 112 (1889) ; Maxim. Mel. 

 Biol. ix. 811. Spiladocorys anqustifolia Ridl. in Trans. Linn. Soc. 

 Bot. ser. 2, iii. (1893), 322, t. 63. ' 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE FLORA OF SOUTH AFRICA. 

 By Harey Bolus, F.L.S. 



II. 



Heliophila namaquana, n. sp. — Herba annua glabra, ^-1 

 pedalis ; caulis e basi patenti-ramosus paucifoliatus pallidus ; folia 

 sparsa linearia, 1-5-2-3 cm. longa ; racemi laxiflori, fructiferi ad 

 15 cm. longi, pedicellis gracilibus, 4-5 mill, longis ; flores inter 

 minores, circa 4 mill, longi, sepalis linearibus, petalis obovatis ob- 

 tusis, filamentis omnibus basi muticis ; siliqune patenti-adscendentes 

 lineares, interdum subtorulosae 1-nervffi, cum pedicello et stylo ad 

 3-5 cm. longae, 1-1-5 mill. lat« ; stylus clavato-oblongus obtusis- 

 simus, in spec, fructiferis ad 4-5 mill, longus ; semina ovalia exalata 

 subnigra. 



Hab : Cape Colony, district of Little Namaqualand, at Naries, 

 on the mts. between Spektakel and Ookiep, alt. about 1075 meters, 

 fl. Sept., Bolus (No. 6517) ; Herb. Norm. Austr-Afr. (No. 485). 



