223 



states tliat this plant grows in a- more or less sandy soil amongst 

 thick scrub, and does not thrive in the open country; it never 

 g^rows in swampy ground, and prefers a dry, fairly warm climate. 

 This species is nearly allied to 5. Stuckyi^ but may readily be 

 distinguished from that by the channel down the face of the 

 leaves being only 1\-Z lin. broad, by the old leaves having well- 

 marked furrows on the sides and back, which are nearly as large 

 ^s the channel down the face and much more evident than any 

 I have seen on the old leaves of S. Stuckyi, also the greyish-green 

 or brownish colour is quite distinct from the green of the leaves 

 •of S. Stuckyi, 



23. S, sulcata, Bojer ex Baker in Journ. Linn, Soc, vol. xiv., 

 p. 549, under S. cylindrical Bojer. Rootstock creeping, |-1 in. 

 thick, reddish. Leaves anparently solitary; in one specimen seen 

 the leaf arises from the apex of a piece of rhizome 5 ins. long, 

 surrounded at its base by 3-4 broadly ovate rather thin scale- 

 leaves 1-3| in. long, 1^1^ in. broad; the other tw^o leaves seen 

 are detached, erect, smooth, 1^-2 ft. long, |-| in. thick in dried 

 specimens, probably much stouter when alive, cylindric, with 

 8-9 broadly-rounded ribs, separated by shallow furrows (scarcely 

 or not discernible in dried specimens, except after boiling a very 

 thin section in water), tapering near the apex to a hardened 

 abruptly acute j>ale brown point about \ in. long. Flower-stem 

 5-9 m. high, stout, i-| in, thick when dried, with 2-3 distant 

 ovate sheaths or scales \-\ in. long on the basal half and a 

 raceme of numerous flower-clusters at the upper half. Bracts 

 ^— I in. long, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, acute, membranous, 

 spreading or deflexed. Flowers 3-6 in a cluster; pedicels 1-1^ 

 lin. long, jointed above the middle, with the persistent part f-1 

 lin. long; tube f in., or rather more long, slender, m dried 



flowers (after boiling in water) \ lin. in diam. at the middle, 



slightly swollen and 5-ribbed at the base; lobes 7 lin. long, 

 linear. — Baker in Kew Bulletin, May, 1887, p. 10, partly, as to 

 Bojer*s specimen only, not as to the figure and living plant, and 

 not of the Flora of Tropical Africa, vol. vii. p. 335, which all 

 belong to S, canaliculaia^ Carriere. 



Teofical Apkica. Eastern shore of South Africa, Bojer ! 

 Comoro Isles, Mayotte Island, sea shore at Pamanzi, Boivin, 



As Bojer's Herbarium at Mauritius has been destroyed by fire, 

 the only authentic specimen existing is the type in the Kew 

 Herbarium. This consists of one detached leaf and a detacheil 

 flower-stem without flowers, the rhizome is also absent. But 

 these iwe so completely identical in all particulars with the 

 leaves and flower-stems of Boivin's specimen in the Paris 

 Herbarium that I think there can be no possible doubt that both 

 specimens belong to one and the same species. 



The description under S. sulcata in the Flora of Tropical 

 Africa, vol, vii. p. 335, Wit^ made from a living plant of S. 

 canalicxdata y Carriere, whioh I believe originally formed part of 

 the same specimen from which the description of S. Schimpcri^ 

 Baker, was made, the two plants being quite identical. 



