Velvitsia] LXXX1X. SCROPHULARIACES. tik 
18. VELVITSIA Hiern, gen. nov. 
Calyx gamosepalous, tubular-campanulate in flower, 5-cleft, 
inferior, accrescent ; the teeth ovate, erect, equal among them- 
selves, falling short of the corolla-limb. Corolla tubular, the 
tube inferior ; the limb deeply 5-cleft ; the lobes ovate, somewhat 
obtuse, imbricate in estivation, soon erect-spreading. Stamens 4, 
inserted at the middle of the corolla-tube, subdidymous, all bearing 
anthers; the filaments somewhat thick, cylindrical-acuminate ; 
the anthers 2-celled; the cells parallel, below free, narrowed, 
acute, not aristate, dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary free, sessile, 
oblong-ovoid, gradually narrowing at the apex into the cylindrical 
style, 2-celled; the placentas somewhat spongy; ovules very 
numerous, crowded, ascending ; style terminal, curved in a hooked 
manner at the apex; stigma simple, somewhat thick, flattened, 
acuminate. Hypogynous disk annular, rather thick and fleshy. 
Capsule included in the erect bladdery persistent calyx, rigid, 
glabrous, 2-valved. Seeds numerous, elongate-cuneiform, crowned 
with a small round membranous appendage ; testa very lax, 
sparingly verruculose ; albumen apparently very thin; embryo 
straight ; cotyledons tolerably large, subfoliaceous, plano-convex, 
twice as long as the terete radicle which is close to the umbilicus. 
A perennial, erect herb, with the lower leaves opposite and 
trinerved, and the inflorescence terminal and racemose. 
Named in honour of Dr. Welwitsch, whose notes have furnished 
the chief part of the description and were indispensable for that 
of the corolla and stamens, since our specimens have lost these 
organs. Welwitschia Reichenb. (1837) has been reduced to Gilia 
Ruiz & Pav. (1794), and Welwitschia Hook. f. (1862) must give 
way to the earlier name Zumboa Welw. (1861); there 1s also 
Welwitschiella O. Hoffm. (1894) in Composite. 
1. V. calycina Hiern. sp. unica. 
Plant 12 to 2 ft. high, scabrid on most parts with short rigid 
hairs ; rootstock woody, furnished with thick fibres; stems rigid, 
straight, angular, sparingly branched, with opposite leaves below 
and with some alternate leaves above and on the branches ; leaves 
lanceolate or somewhat oval-oblong, obtuse or rounded at the 
apex, more or less narrowed to the subsessile or very shortly 
petiolate base, very rough, shortly hispid, bright green, rigidly 
membranous, densely venulose with raised venation between the 
nerves, narrowly revolute and remotely denticulate on the margin, 
exstipulate, 1} to 3 in. long by 4 to 2 in. broad, the lower leaves 
smaller and crowded ; petiole broad and very short or obsolete, 
somewhat hispidulous; inflorescence centripetal, narrow, 6 to 
12 in. long; pedicels opposite, bracteate at the base, the lower 
ones ranging up to about an inch long, the upper ones shorter ; 
bracts leaf-like, + to 13 in. long; bracteoles at the apex of the 
pedicels, sublinear, 4 to 2 in. long; calyx about } in. long in 
flower, about ? in. long in fruit and then hemispherical, inflated, 
10-nerved, not-veined, scabrid outside, smooth, with sub-deltoid 
pointed lobes; corolla whitish verging on pale yellow, marked 
