263 tuse, flat or perhaps concave, tapering into a petiole that is 



dilated at the base into an open, flat sheath, glabrous, papulose. 

 Pedicels erect in flower anf fruit, slender, li-5 inches long, ^- 

 f line thick, glabrous, not papulose. Calyx with the underside of 

 the overy-part slightly convex when in flo\;er and flat and smooth 

 when in fruit, unequally 5-lobed; two lobes entirely green, 3-7 

 lines long, linear or linear-spathulate from a broad base, the other 

 three 2|-3 lines long, suborbicular or broadly ovate, with broad 

 membrpnous margins, and a dorsal point 2-3 lines long. Corolla 

 li-lj inch in diameter in the withered flower seen; petals numer- 

 ous, in 3-4 series, 6-7 lines long, i-l/3 line brosd, linear, acute, 

 yellow. Staminodes hair-like, tortuous, yellow. Stamens about 3 

 lines long, with yellow filaments and orange anthers. Style none; 

 stigmas 7-S, about 1§-2| lines long, filiform, tortuous. Ovary 

 partly superior, conical at the top, with 7-S oells. Capsile, v/hen 

 closed, 5-8 lines in diameter, circular in outline, flat and smooth 

 beneath, conical above, 'vith 7-8 valves and cells; valves reflexed 

 when expanded, entirely pallid, or fuscous or brov;nish at the apical 

 and blackish at the fesai part -ithin, including the expanding 

 keels, which are closely contiguous below and about 1/3 as long as 

 the valve; their flanks or marginal parts spread out flat and adhere 

 to the valve up to the margin, where they turn up into a sharp edge, 

 and except the very short awn-like tips, which are closely applied 

 to the valve, they adhere to the valve throughout; cells open, 

 without ce^l-wings or a Placental tubercle; cell-partitions (from 

 the component parts bein-" separated and inflated between) appearing 

 very stout, with convex sides and produced at thfe centre into a 

 cone of verj acute points. Seeds somewhat compressed, roundish, 

 8/3 line in diameter, microscorjically granulate, pallid or greyish, 

 dotted with darker grey or brown. ^ 



South Africa: Piquetberg Division, at ^ndekuil, I^^ughan Bpovm, 

 I place this plant under -^^patesla with some doubt as it differs 

 by the absence of a style, the ovary and capsule conical at the top 

 and the awned expand ing-keels. It requires further investigation 

 when alive, as my description is made from dried material. 



N. E. Brown 

 (To be continued.) 



MESSfclBRYANTHSIvttIM . 

 Gard. Chron. HI. lOOi 164. 1936. 



I»:ESTOKLmi/i, N. E. Br. 



164 Shrubs or shrublets, in one species with a treelike trunk, 

 bushily and often intricatel?/ branched, sometimes (always?) with 

 a tuberous roots took, and the young branches minutely papulose, 

 slightly rought to the touch when dried and pallid, and the flower 

 cymes persisting, hardening and becoming subspinose, but are not 

 pungent. Leaves opposite, not united at the base, often leaving a 

 tooth-like projection on the stem when they fall away, triginous 

 or subterete, minutely or microscopically papulose and flittering, 

 bearing leaf-tufts in their axils. Flowers small, pedicellate, in 

 terminal brae tea te cymes that are 2-5-times dichotomously divided. 

 Bracts small, leaf-like. Caljrx subequally 5-lobed, small, leaf 

 some of the lobes ^'ith narrow, membranous margins. Petals in one 

 series, linear, often little longer then the calyx-lobes. Stamens 

 numerous, collected into a cone, the inner bearded; no staminodes. 



