19R crenulpto, rlendular ring, 4-6-cellecl . Style long or short (rare- 

 ly pl.raost ebstne) , vn th 4-S-f iliform stigmes at its apex, ^arsule 

 s^.pTl, 4-S-vrlved, 4-S-celled, vith or v.dthout cell-wings coverinf?; 

 the seeds. 



The Generic n?me is formed from the Greek words konos, a cone, 

 ?n^ r<h'"-ton, s plr^nt, in allusion to the form of the growths, which 

 in mpn-"" s'oecies resemble an inverted cone in shape. I have adopted 

 thi- name from I-fer-orth's suggestion in his ^evisiones J^lantrrum 

 Succulent^ rumj p. SS, where, under his Section -4nima, he writes, 

 '*If this section proves to "be a genus the name ^onophyton would be 

 apt.^' But he does not himself actually propose to consider it 

 f?eneric9lly distinct from I'lesembryanthemum, as he does in the esse 

 of Giottiphyllum and GribbeeTJ.m. Yet, ?^s I consider that these 

 plents are genericplly distinct from i>'^e s embryo- nth era\im, as he does 

 in the case of Giottiphyllun and G-ibbeeum. ..^et, as I consider ths t 

 these Plants gre genericelly distinct from ^"esembryanthemu, I have 

 accepted his suggestion for a generic name for them by modifying it 

 into the L^tin form. 



The plants included in this genus are all distinguisheble at 

 sight from I'^esembryanthemum by their form, and technically by their 

 cai^rx and corolla, each having a distinct tube, by the presence of 

 a distinct style (in tv/o or three species, hov'.'ever, this is almost 

 absent), and by their peculiar mode of growth in both the seedling 

 and adult stage, being, together with those of the genus "i-ithops, 

 the only known nlants that ere almost alike in form in both the 

 cotyledonary and adult stages, the only practical difference betvv'?en 

 the two stages bein-?^ that of size, as i have described, and illus- 

 trated in the Gardeners* Chronicle, 1921, vol. L^-. p. 207, fig, 

 LXXXr/., T.:-0, and p. 223, fig. 97. 



^ peculiarit^r of these i^lants is (as stated in vol. I^-"^, p. 

 290 ) thf-t they have ver3r short roots, rarely more than about an 

 inch or an inch and a half lon?^, and they often grov/ in a very 

 shallow layer of soil (from half an inch to one inch thick) that 

 has accumulated upon the surface on crevices of rocks, -low they 

 manage to exist in the dry, hot climate of South -ti-frica in such 

 situations is a mystery that cannot be solved in Surope. 



Tbe nlants of this genus, together with those of the genus 

 Litho^s, fire '^o^ularly knovm as the "Sphaeroid Llesembryanthemums, " 

 and of this group in the most recent monograph of the genus 

 Mesembryanthemum, T^ublished by Berger in 1908, only 17 species 

 are enumerated, of which he appears to have seen only six, yet et 

 that date I had at least thirty srecies in cultivation. In the 

 following enumeration 58 srecies are described, so that with the 

 addition of the ten species of Litho^s already described, the 

 number of Sphaeroids at present knov-n amounts to 68, and I have a 

 few others that I expect to be nev/ species that have not yet flow- 

 ered. Over a hundred years ago Havrorth ("Synopsis, p. 236/ records 

 that he asked lesson (vfho introduced a vast numberof these plants) 

 if he had sent home all the species there v/ere "No, n3r half of 

 then." And I very much doubt at this period if half the species 

 of Sphperoids have yet been discovered. 



^riner my botanical career ^ have worked at a large number of 

 genera of rlahts, end have generally been able to make some sort 

 of akey to the species, but this genus Conophytiua defies all my 

 e^-^orts, ""or there are so few characters to make use of that can 

 be defjned by words. These plants do not possess the evident 

 parts that other plants have; no stem, no leaves, no angles, no 

 stipules, no prickles or srines from which differentiating char- 



