450 usuell;"- numerous, sometimes fev lobes or petr-ls, spreading or 



recurved, 5n one to several series, the inner series at the mouth 

 of the tube in some species smaller and differently coloured 

 (st'-^-inodes*?) . Stamens, fev.- or many, erect included in or partly 

 eTseeted from the corolla -tube, -^tyle , Ion?? or short, rprely 

 nearly or nuite absent; sitp;mas four to six, filiform,. Ovary 

 irr^er'ior, fl-^t or convex or conical a '^ the tc , vdth a crenulate 

 rin"^ o-f connected ffla nds at its margin, four-to-six-celled; pla- 

 centas on the floor or outer wall of the cell, ^epsule small, v/ith 

 four to- 5even \Tlves and cells; valves with a central expanding- 

 keel continuous with the cell-partititions; cells open, vdthout 

 cell-T'inffs or tubercules. Seeds minute, ovoid, with a nipple at 

 one end, smooth.-- H. S. Bro'ATi, in Gardeners' Chronicle, i'922, vol. 



rai.^ r>. 198. 



Species numerous, all natives of the Karoo sgion of South 

 A-^ricp' , ranp-ing from Great N'amanueland southward and eastward as 

 far as CHidtshoorn division, but at riresent not knov/n to extend 

 he von d those li'-^its. 



The name id derived from, the G^eek konos, a cone, and phyton, 

 a Plant, in allusion to the share of the growths, v/hich in most 

 of the species is like an inverted cone. 



-"any of the species expand their flovrers at the close of the 

 da" or at night, closing ageing in the. morning, and when thfeir 

 floviers at the close of the day or at night, closing again in the 

 morning, and v/hen their flov.rers are white, crea::i-coloured and 

 yellowish, they alwaj'^s have very narrow or linear-filiform petals, 

 but v;hen the petals are pink or magenta they are usually much 

 broader. Those that exoand their flov-ers in the day-time always 

 have broader petals than the night -flov/ering species, irrespective 

 of colour. Why is this? Wh3?- do after day-flov/ering species need 

 to make themselves more conspicuous than those that flov.-er at 

 nis-ht? Som.e of the night-flov/ering kinds are scented, but so also 

 are some of those that are da 7/-f lowering, so that a difference in 

 the attraction o'' odour does not seem to explain the problem. I 

 know that nothin^^ of how or by what insects these plants are ferti- 

 lised, but from observations made in my own greenhous, I am inclined 

 to believe that mites, thrips and similar minute insects are among 

 the chief agents. 



In my original description of the genus at the' place above 

 quoted, I described the ce''ls of the capsule as "v/ith or v/ithout 

 06'' 1-wings," This is an error, based upon the fact that the 

 capsTOe of the plant I described as C. piiosulum has cell-v.'ings , 

 but T hari not then seen a flovrer of that species, only a photo- 

 crrppb o-*^ it, v;hich is usel^r for structural details. Last year, 

 however, the plant flowered at Kew, and ^r. J. ^"uir has this year 

 sent f owers of it to m^e from South Africa, and now that I have 

 been able to exam.ine its blossoms, I find that the floral structure 

 of G. pilosulun is nuite different from, that of Conophytum, and 

 identical with that 'of Gibbaeiim, and the important character of 

 the presence of cell-sings also agrees, with the fruit-structure 

 of that p-enus, under v/hich this plant v/ill be found enumerated 

 hereafter,. The appearance of the plrnt, hov.-ever, is so much 

 like that of CJonophytum, that I think no one vi/ould have suspected 

 thot it did not belong? to that genus. But it also possesses an- 

 other character that should have v/arned m^e, for in place of the 

 ver^"- short ff.brous roots characterist''C of the genus ^onophytum 

 it has the dee'^ly descendin'^ root stock characteristic of the genus 

 Gibbaeura. 



It ^ as not until some timer after my last article on Lnese 



