9 and snow-white in colour, without dots or marks of any kind. The 

 enclosed nair of leaves are slightly shorter than the sheath, and, 

 being shrivelled, do not fill it tightly, their flat faces ere 

 Dressed together so as to form a beak-like body about 3-3-| lines 

 broad and l| line thick, like that common to many species of this 

 genus; surface smooth, Glabrous, apparently light green or glaucous 

 green tinged mth red at the at^ex and along the acute keels, and 

 distinctly dotted with darker green all over, ^lowers not seen. 

 Pedicels of the fruit ascending or very spree ding with the capsule 

 upturned from it, 8-15 lines long, v/ith the withered remains at its 

 base of thB short growth (the so-called bracts) from which it em- 

 erged, glabrous, white, ^apsule, when closed, 4-5 lines in diameter 

 and about ? lines deep, circular in outline, flat with a raised 

 centre at the top, convex beneath, with 9-10 valves and cells, 

 white until wetted i when expanded about 7-8 lines in diameter, with 

 the valves reflexed and ^.shared in side view; expanding keels a- 

 bout half as long as the valves, diverging from their base, cilia te- 

 toothed along the edges, chestnut-bro^vn v/ith palled, awn-like tips; 

 cells convexiy or bluntly roofed v;ith stiff, translucent, pale 

 broTATiish cell-wings turned back at the opening like the mouth of 

 a trumr^et end the opening completely closed by a large white tubercle, 

 near the middle of the roof each pair of cell-v/ings rises into a 

 pair of stiff erect avm-like points 3/4 line long, concave on the 

 inner side at the base. Seeds several in a cell, 1/3 line long, 

 comr>ressed-ovoid, acute at one end, smooth, pale brown with the 

 point darker brown. 



Little N^amequalandJ Locality unknown, ^-^arloth. 



In its natural resting condition this is one of the mst re- 

 markable and most distinct species in this curious genus that I 

 have seen, and "^ have great pleasure in associating the name of Dp, 

 R. Karloth (who kindly sent it to me) with such an interesting 

 t)lant. The snow-white unspotted sheaths are remarkably sleeve-like 

 in a^^pearance, well conforming to the generic name, and are very 

 remarkable structures, and as only Just the tips of the leaves con- 

 tained in them are visible, even when viewed from above, if the 

 plant grows among v;hite stones it would scarcelj"" be perceived at 

 a distance of a few feet av/ay when in a resting condition, 



■A-lthough the above description gives no account of the plant 

 in a growing or flovrering condition, I publish it because its 

 appearance in the nature! resting condition and the structure of 

 the fruit is so unlike that of any other known species thrt there 

 can be no possibility of mistaking it when seen in its resting and 

 fruiting state, and the vegetative characters will be given later. 

 I believe, however, thst the strange appearance of this plant in 

 its natural resting condition will never be repeated in this coun- 

 try, on account of the greater humidity of our climate. 



The structure of the fruit, too, presents an unsolved problem 

 Bv indeed does that of the v;hole genus; for the cspsules of all the 

 species are fashioned on the same plan, but the tubercle in this 

 species appears to me to more completely close the opening than 

 in other forms of species, so that ^ cannot understand how the 

 seeds can escape from the cells; roofed as they are by stiff cell- 

 wings, it v/ould seem almost impossible for them to do so, ^%ether 

 the curious pair of awn-like points arising from the roof formed by 

 the cell-wings have anything to do with the dispersal of the seeds 

 I cannot say, but I suspect that they aid dispersal in some way, 

 for such an elaborate structure as that of the fruit of this plant 

 and its allies almost certain to have some connection with the dis- 

 persal and future welfare of the seeds, which certainly do get out 



