149 of the t)lent) is quite distinct from thet of any other member of 

 this large group of plants known to me. 



D. lapldiformis' seems to be a difficult clant to cultivate. 

 Dr. I'-arloth informs me that he discovered it in the Ceres Karoo 

 "about 50 miles from the nearest railway stetion," and as it 

 resembles the stones it ^trov.-s among it is not very easy to find 

 when out of flover, for he states at the place above quoted, In 

 nature, the leaves are of a brovmish-red colour and closely resem- 

 ble the angular pieces of brovm shale and sandstone between which 

 the plants grow. As they are half buried in the ground they can 

 be detected only with difficiilty, even in localities where their 

 occurrence is knovm.'* The nlpnt flowers in the South -African 

 spring (Sertember end "October' , and at the beginning of summer 

 "the old leaves have shrivelled up, the nev? pair end has assumed 

 the colour of the surrounding stones, and the plant remains dor- 

 mant until the winter brings rain again." -^s the rainfall of the 

 region it inhabits is said to be only three or four inches per annum 

 I suspect that our moister climate does not suit it very well. 



Dr. I'arloth sent to me two plants of it, a dead flov<er and a 

 ripe fruit. The plants lived about twenty month, each produced a 

 fresh Pair of leaves, and one of them a pair of dormant, flowering 

 peduncles, before they died. ^ raise a niimber of seedlings, but 

 they have gradually all died except one out of a number I gave to 

 Kew 0-ardens, and Dr. i-larloth informs me that his stock of the plant 

 (collected at the same time as those he sent to me) grovm at Cape 

 Tcw'n have also all died. So that it is evident that it is not an 

 easy relent to cultivate, even in its ov;n country, av7&j froa its 

 native habitat. The plant quickly dies if given too much water. 



The manner in which the yoiing flov/er-buds remain hidden in 

 the body of the bracts, dormant and utterly invisible for months, 

 is very remarkable, ^t is only when the plant is producing a new 

 pair of leaves and a new pair of flowering peduncles for the next 

 season that the flowers hidden in the old bracts make their appear- 

 ance. I do not recal? to mind a similar manner of flowering and 

 in any other genera of this or any other Natural ^rder of Plants. 

 In ?ig. 74, the flov^er-buds are seen to be just emerging from the 

 base of the notch in the bract-body on each side of the plant, 

 and the riant itself is seen to be forming a new pair of leaves, 

 on each side of whic^' a new pair of flowering-brects is also being 

 formed, but they have not yet pushed their way through the opening 

 so as to be visible. Figs. 73' and 75 are from a drawing by Miss 

 Page sent to me by J^rs. L. BqIus, keener of the Bolus herbarium, 

 Cape Tovm. N. E, Brown 



(To be continued.) 



« 



LffiSaiBRYANTHKaUlvl, 

 Gard. Chron. HI. 80: 212. 192.3. 

 (Continued from page 149) 



XI.— PUNCTILLARIA, N. E. Br, 



212 Very dwarf, succulent perennials, without intemodes between 



the leef-nairs. Leaves opposite, in 1-2 pairs or, under cultivation, 

 sometimes 3 pairs to a grov/th or plant, those of each pair equal 

 in size, sp reeding, very shortly united at the base except in ^. 

 Roodiae, usually three or more times (in one species usually less 

 than twice) as longa as broad, thick and fleshy, firm, usually very 

 conspicuously dotted. Flowers solitary and terminal between the 



