Cyphocarpa.] cvi. AMARANTACEiE (baker and Clarke). 58 



East African species. Ovary obovoid. 



Leaves tomentose. ..... 5. C. pallida. 



Leaves silky. 



Heads without rigid spines . . . 6. C. Hildehrandtii. 



Heads with rigid straight spines , . 7. C orthaeantha. 



1. C. angustifolia, Lopr. in Engl. Jahrb. xxvii. 45. An under- 

 shrub, glabrate, except the inflorescence, often 2 ft. high, much branched 

 below. Leaves opposite, 2 in. long, narrowly linear. Inflorescences 

 dense, in fruit 1-7 in. long, | in. broad, with much brown hair ; hair very 

 long and fine, with rather long joints and papillae or minute prickles at 

 many of the joinings ; bracts ovate, hairy, with short straight spines 

 at the tip. Perianth-segments oblong, acute or mucronate, in fruit 

 hardened and connate at the base. Staminal tube exceedingly short ; 

 filaments licear to the base ; the interjected processes triangular, minute. 

 Ovary ovoid, hairy, with a horn on its shoulder. — Hiern in Cat. Afr. 

 PI. Welw. i. 889. Serwocortia angustifolia, Hook. f. in Benth. & 

 Hook. f. Gen. PI. iii. 30. Cyathula angusti/olia, Moquin in DC, Prodr. 

 xiii. ii. 328, fide Hook, f . (but Moquin says twice that his flower-clusters 

 were glochidiate). 



Iiower Guinea. Angola: Huilla; Lopollo, in thickets at tlie borders of 

 fields, rare, Welwitsch, 6489 ! 



XWozaxnb. Dlst. Portuguese East Africa : Lower Zambesi j between Lupata 

 and Tete, Kirk ! Sena, Kirk ! Rhodesia : Maitengue Valley, Holub 1 Bulawayo, 

 Gardner, 87 ! 



Also in South Africa. 



2. C. Petersii, Lopr. in Engl. Jahrb. xxvii. 43, 45. Inflorescences 

 shortened, conic, very thin, 3J by J in., otherwise as C. angustifolia^ 

 Lopr. — Lopr. in Malpighia, xiv. 439. 



Mozamb. I>lst. Portuguese East Africa : Lower Zambesi ; Tete, Peters. 



British Central Africa : Nyasaland ; Kambole, 6000 ft., Nutt ! 



I have seen no authentic example of C. Petersii, and refer Nutt's collection to 

 it only from Lopriore's description. From that description, C. Petersii would appear 

 to differ from C. angustifolia only in the shortened inflorescence. In Nutt's 

 example the ^oung inflorescences are ovoid, less than 1 in. long; the perianth- 

 segments are much less hairy than those of C. angustifolia. 



3. C. Welwitschii, C. B. CI. Erect, 18 in. high, pubescent; 

 branches opposite. Leaves opposite, 1 J by |^ in., ovate-elliptic, shortly 

 triangular at either end ; petiole \ in. long. Inflorescence up to 4 by ^ 

 in., white-hairy in fruit ; hairs very thin, scabrous at the joinings of the 

 cells. Partial inflorescences often with 2-3 perfect flowers ; sterile flowers 

 ending in straight short spines. Perianth-segments ^ in. long, white- 

 hairy, hardly spinescent. Filaments linear to the base, with an oblong 

 lacerate process between each pair. Ovary glabrous, obovoid, truncate 

 at the top. — Sericocortia Welwitschii, Baker in Kew Bulletin, 1897, 



