290 EEVISION OF EXTRA-TROPICAL SOUTH AFRICAN ASCLEPIADACE^. 



which have long been known to inhabit the Scottish Arran, and 

 have been described under the names of P. scandica Syme and 

 P. fennica Bab. Prof. Koehne, in an interesting communication 

 made by him to the Edinburgh Botanical Society, the substance of 

 which was reproduced in this Journal, 1897, p. 99, gives his judgment 

 on these Arran and Breconshire plants, specimens of which were sub- 

 mitted to him through Prof. Conventz. Prof. Koehne thinks all the 

 Arran plants, together with the Breconshire P. minima, to be 

 members of a series of hybrids between Aria suecica Koehne (Pip-iis 

 scandica Ascherson) and Sorbas Aueuparia [Pijrus Ancuparia Gaertn.). 

 Aria suecica Koehne is at least extremely rare in Britain as a native 

 plant, and is far from common in cultivation. A single tree found 

 by me near Merthyr Tydvil, Breconshire, about eleven miles from 

 the station for P. minima, was pronounced by Prof. Koehne to be 

 true A. suecica; but it seems still to be doubtful whether it occurs 

 at all in Arran, where two of the supposed hybrids are found. 



I venture to express a doubt of the desirability of naming such 

 a series of plants as these P;//Ms-forms, or, again, the Cinquefoils 

 ranging between P. reptans L. and P. silvestris Neck., or, again, 

 certain groups of closely-allied Brambles, simply as "hybrids." 

 Although favoured by great authorities, and no doubt expressing an 

 interesting theory of the origin of such races, its use in this way 

 deprives us of a term to express the very different phenomenon of 

 ordinary hybridity as affecting individual plants. 



The figure of the flowering spray is from a drawing by Mrs. F. J . 

 Hanbury; that of the fruit from one by Miss Marion Gee. 



EEVISION OP EXTRA-TROPICAL SOUTH AFRICAN 



ASCLEPIADACE^. 



By Rudolph Schlechter. 



(Continued from Journ. Bot. 1896, p. 458.) 



Suborder II. Cynanchoide^e. 

 B. Secamone^. 

 XXVII. Secamone R. Br. in Mem. Wern. Soc. i. 53 (1811) ; Dene, 

 in DC. Prodr. viii. 501 (1814) ; Bth. & Hk. f. Gen. PI. ii. 

 746 (1876). 



1. S. ThunbergiiE. Mey. Comm. PI. Afr. Aastr. 224 (1837) ; Dene. 

 I.e. 501 (1844). Periploca Secamone Thbg. Flor. Cap. 233 (1823). 



Cape Colony, Kaffraria, East Griqualand, Pondoland, Natal, 

 Zululand, Orange Free State, Transvaal. 



2. S. frutescens Dene. I.e. 501 (1844). Astephanus frutescens 

 E. Mey. Z.c. 220(1837). 



Uitenhage, Albany, Kaffraria, East Griqualand, Pondoland, 

 Natal, Zululand, Orange Free State, Transvaal. 



3. S. Gerrardi Harv. ex Schltr. in Journ. Bot. 1895, 353. 

 Kaffraria, Pondoland, Natal, Zululand. 



