XOTES O^" MESEMBKYAXTHE.MUiE 67 



Haworth's Sifiiopsls (p. 236) : " When the great botanic traveller 

 Masson (who traversed the Cape countries for twentv years) was 

 asked whether he had sent all the Mesenibryanths to "^England, his 

 emphatic answer was ' No ! nor half of them.' " 



2. M, HUMIFUSFM Ait. Hort. Kew. ii. 179. 

 This drawing appears to be the only authentic material in existence 

 for the species, which recent authors have failed to identif}^ Sonder 

 (I'l. Ccip. ii. 457) merely reproduces the Hort. Kew. description and 

 cites no specimens ; Berger {Mesemhrianfhemen, 58) places it after 

 the described species at the end of his Expansa group and says 

 " ungeniigend bekannte Art." This being so, it may perhaps hQ 

 worth while to transcribe from the Solander MSS. Dryander's 

 detailed account, which follows the diiignosis printed in Hort. Kew. : — 



" Tofa planta procumbens, undique scabra, papulis elevatis, copio- 

 sissimis, conicis, obtusis. 



*' Folia opposita, spathulata, obtusa, duas vel tres uncias longa, 

 supra plana, subtus carinata. 



" Flores pedunculati. 



*' Calyx quinqueiidus : Incinice lanceolatae, insequales. 



^' Petcda minutissima, albida. 



" ^tyl'i quinque. 



" Gapsula quinque coronata quinque corniculis compressis, apice 

 bifidis." 



. On the drawing the name is referred to " Linn. Supplem.," but it 

 is not to be found therein. 



Ha worth (Obs. 420) says he had not seen the plant : a reference . 

 to this page will show that the " humifunum Lee " of Ind. Kew. 

 has no actual existence. 



In tlie Banksian Herbarium Dryander attaches the name liumi- 

 fusum to a specimen from Jacquin's herbarium, without other in- 

 formation, which provides little material for identification or 

 examination. Elsewhere (Syn. 248) Haworth says the species 

 ^'according to the Hortus Kewensis is shrubb}" ; otherwise I should 

 have thought it might not be distinct from the strictly annual 

 J£ lanceolatum " - but no such character as that alleged is in the 

 Hort. Kew. description. 



3. M. APETALUM L. f. Suppl. 258 (1781) ; Ait. Hort. Kew. ii. 

 180 (diagnosis fi'om Dr^^ander's MS., where is also a full description). 



M. CALAMIFOEME L. Sp. PL 690; Ait. Hort. Kew. ii. 181. 

 The drawing is lettered " M. calamiforme L. var." : there is no refer- 

 ence to the species in Solander MSS. 



5. M. PALLE^^s Ait- Hoi-t. Kew. 182. 



Dryander has in MS. a full description as well as the diagnosis, but 

 the species is generally recognized and it does not seem necessary to 

 transcribe tliis. M. pallens Salm-D3"ck, § 63, f. 2, looks to me 

 different, but Berger accepts the identity and reproduces Salm-Dyck's 

 figure as representing Alton's plant. 



6. M. L3MPIDUM Ait. Hort. Kew. ii. 183. 



Tliis species is omitted from the index to Fl. Cap., but is in the text 



J-2 



