usually velvety to the touch. Stamens in a very prom- 

 inent column, with the basal pert fully exposed to view 

 by the v^dde-srrepding base of the petals. Stigmg^s 5-6 

 (?ig. lOa) . ■'^repodesma. 



N. E. Brov.m 

 (To be continued.) 



l£SSa!3RYAN1HSLOTvI. 

 Gard. Chron. HI. 88: 474. 1930. 

 (Continued from page 279.) 



ACAULON, N. S. 3r. 



Stemless, nerenniel Succulent, with a firra, fleshy root- 

 stock,. Leaves onposite, united at the base, spathulate, arranged 

 in a somev^'hat 4-ranked rosette, very spreading, covered v/ith raised 

 dots or small pustules. Fiov;ers appearig to be axillary, solitery 

 or 2 or ^ in a sessile, bracteate cyme, pedicellate, ^alp^ sub- 

 equally 5-lobed, pustulate. I'etals numerous, free, all widely _ 

 snreading and imbricating in one plane, as if in one series. •Sta- 

 mens numerous, all collected into a broad cone, the outer (-stamin- 

 odes) v'ithout anthers; filaments hairy at the basal part. Stigmas 

 10-13, subulate, laterally compressed and fringed on their inner 

 ede-es. C\rary more than half-superior, very convex above, flattish- 

 convex beneath, v;ith 10-13 shallov/ cells; placentas on the floor of 

 the cells. Capsule half or more than half-superior, flattened, a- 

 bout equally convex above and beneath, v/ith 10-13 valves and cells, 

 and vath the sutural ridges somewhat e"^ evated and gaping; valves 

 with a thin central keel from base to apex within; expanding-keels 

 adnate only to the base then diverging, with contiguous at their 

 base, then diverging, vdth membranous martinal wings which at the 

 basal part are broad and united in pars and stand erect so as to form 

 a thin, wing-like membranous keel betv/een the bases of the valves, and 

 at the apical Dart taper into a slender linear membranous tips 

 nearly as long as the valve; cells more than half-superior, acutely 

 roofed with membranous cell-wings, risin • above the level of the 

 base o^ the valves into a broad cone terminating in a series of 

 points; no placental tubercle. Seeds globose-ovoid, pointed at one 

 end, nearly smooth to the eye, but microscopically tuberculate, 

 brown. — N. E. Br. in Journ. Sot.j^ 1928, 77. 



A monoty^ic genus, native of ^outh -Africa. 



The name is derived from, the Greek, acaulos, stemless, because 

 the riant has no evident stem. 



This genus is nearly related to Titanopsis, from which it is 

 clearly distinguished bv having 10-13 (instead o:^ 6) stigmas, and 

 by its partly sup-^rior ovary and biconvex capsule. 



In South African Gardening, 1929, p. 245, doubt is expressed 

 as to the correctness of my statements concerning tne structure of 

 A. rosulatujE, and that drawings possessed by i-^rs. Bolus "show an 

 inferior ovary." This statement is ouite contrary to the figure of 

 it vxhich I'rs. Bolus published vdth the original description as I 

 have auoted under the srecies, where the ovary is represented 

 (vrrongly , in mv oninion) as being wholly superior and sub-globose. 

 I find it distinctly more or than half-superior, and as represented 

 in Eig. 198, vrhich was made twenty years ago from the plant that 

 flov/ered at Kew in 1910. 



