JSrva.] cvi. amarantacile (baker and clarke). 41 



Ulecehrum hrachiatuntf Linn. Mant. 213. Pseudanthtis bra>chmtay Wight, 

 Ic. t. 1776 partly. Noihosc^rua hrachiata^ Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. 

 iu. 34; Hook. f. Fl. Brit. Ind. iv. 72G ; Schinz in Engl. & Prantl, 

 Pflanzenfam. iu. lA, 105, 109, in Engl. Pfl. Ost-Afr. C. 173 ; Hiern 

 in Cat. Afr. PI. Welw. i. 892. 



Vpper Guinea. Senegambia, Meudelot, 239 ! Northern Nigeria : Kuka, 

 near Lake Chad, Vogel, 7 ! 



Wortli Central. Kanem : near Nguri, Chevalier, 10071 ! 



BTlle Xiand. Kordofan, Kotschyy 112! 139! 372! Darfur, :BvLrdy^ 31 1 

 White Nile ; Schioeinfurth, 987 ! 



&ower Guinea. Angola : Loanda ; TTeltoitsch, 6534 ! Gossweiler, 324 ! 



Also in the Mascarene Islands and Indiu. 



This plant is so like JErva lanata, Juss., that, as Hooker f. shows (in the Flora 

 of Brit. Ind. I.e.), it Las been mistaken for, and mixed with, it by Wight. The 

 llowers being minute, are usually much reduced in the perianth and staminal tube. 



8. SERICOCOMA, Fenzl (partly) ; Benth. et Hook, 

 f . Gen. PI. iii. 30. 



Perfect flower supported by 1-2 sterile flowers reduced to bracts or 

 bracteoles, which are spinose, not uncinate; 2-3 (rarely 1) perfect 

 flowers under each floral leaf, constituting partial inflorescences, which 

 are arranged in dense compound spikes, and full of fine hairs. Perianth- 

 segments oblong or elliptic. Stamens 5 ; filaments linear to the base, 

 there united into a very short cup ; between each pair is a staminode 

 or process on the rim of the cup ; anthers with 2 oblong cells. Ovary 

 ovoid ; ovule one, suspended from a basal f unicle ; style about as long 

 as^the ovary ; stigma small. Seed orbicular, flattened ; embryo annular. 

 — Leaves all alternate. 



Species 6, in Tropical and South Africa. 



This genus is here separated, as by Schinz (in Engl. & Prantl, Pflanzenfam. iii. 

 lA, 105), by its alternate leaves, which distinguish it from Cyphiocarpa (and from 

 nearly all the less closely allied genera). 



Leaves oblong, elliptic. Branches pubescent . • , 1. S. jpungens. 

 Leaves linear. Branches glabrous 2. ^. capitata. 



1. S. ptingexiSy Fenzl in Linnceaj xvii. 326. Undershrub, lestJ 

 than 1 ft. high, much branched, rigid, pubescent with grey or brownish 

 hairs. Leaves all alternate, less than | in. long, oblong-elliptic, obtuse. 

 Inflorescences terminal, short-peduncled ; in fruit J in. broad, ovoid, 

 with much fine brown hair. Staminodes small, ovate. — Moquin in DC. 

 Prodr. xiii. ii. 308 ; Hook. f. in Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. iii. 30. 

 aS*. pungenSf var. longearistata, Schinz in Engl. Jahrb. xxi. 181, in 

 Bull. Herb. Boiss. v. Append, iii. 64. S. leucoclada, Lopr. in Engl. 

 Jahrb. xxvii. 45, 47. 



Ito-wer Guinea. Great Namaqualand ; Fleck, 22a. 



Also in Western South Africa. 



Fleck's plant may have been collected near Rehoboth, or may have been extra- 



