Xt/ris.] cxLii. XYRiDE.E (brown). 25 



of the Cuanza River, near Buiuba, Welwitsch, 2i:60 I Huilla ; Humpata, in spongy 

 marshes at the foot of the Sierra de Oiahoia, Welwitsch, 2475 ! 



HKozamb. X>lst. (Jerman East Africa and the region around Lake Nyasa, ex 

 Engler. British Central Africa : Nyasaland ; Shire Hijfhlands, Buchanan ! Mount 

 MalosH, 4000-6000 fc, Whyfe! Mount Zomba, 4000-6000 ft., Whyte ! 



Also in Madagascar. 



This Tropical African plant differs from the typical Madagascar form in that tlie 

 peduncles are more slender, and the cilia on the keels of the lateral sepals have a 

 tendency to be grouped in tufts, instead of being evenly spread as in typical X. Hil- 

 dehrandtii^ but in other respects the two plants closely agree. X. Umhilonis, Nilss., 

 under which Rendle has placed it, differs in having the keel of the lateral sepals 

 produced at the apex, but may, perhaps, only be a local form : it was collected in Natal. 

 X. Hildehrandtii is distinguished from all other Tropical African species, by its dull 

 blackish-brown many-flowered spikes, and distinctly ciliate sepals. 



Imperfectly known species, 



82. X. minima, Steud. Syn. PI. Glum. ii. 288. Roots fibrous, veiy 

 slender. Peduncular-sheath lax, terminated by. a flattish or setaceous 

 leafy point 3-5 lin. long. Peduncle lJ-3 in. long, capillary or filiform, 

 Spike small. Bracts ovate-oblong, obtuse, pale chestnut-brown. 

 Lateral sepals lanceolate-spathulate. — X. humilis, var. minima, Nilss. 

 in Ofvers. Vet. Akad. Forhandl. Stockh. 1891, 152 ; and in Svensk. Vet. 

 Akad. Handl. xxiv., no. 14, 40 ; Durand & Schinz, Consp. Fl. Afr. 

 V. 420. 



Upper Guinea. Los Islands, Jardin, 120, in Stockholm Herb. 



I have not seen a specimen of this plant, and the description is in&uflBcient for its 

 identification, but it would appear to be allied to X. straininea,W\\sB., or X.Jiliforinis, 

 Lam. 



Order CXLIII. COMMELINACE^. (By C. B. Clarke.) 



Flowers small, bisexual or some sterile. Sepals 3, one entirely 

 external in the bud. Petals 3, free or their claws imperfectly united 

 into a tube in Cyanotis. Stamens 6, whereof 4-1 are often sterile and 

 deformed or wanting ; filaments often with beaded hairs. Ovary 

 superior, 3-2-celled ; when 3-celled the dorsal cell often smaller with 

 fewer ovules or empty ; style simple ; ovules 1 or several in each cell 

 attached to the inner angle. Fruit (except in the two first small 

 genera) a loculicidal cap.sule.- Seeds having the hilum linear, vertical 

 (except in the two first genera) ; embryo small, far from the hilum, 

 shortly cylindric in the floury albumen ; foramen prominent, covered 

 by an embryostega, lateral {i.e. nearly opposite the hilum), except in 

 Cyanotis. — Herbs. Leaves alternate, ovate to linear, bases sheathing. 



Species 330, in all warm countries. 



Mostly succulent weedy plants, with fugitive flowers. In some genera the flowers 

 are symmetric or nearly so ; but in the majority the flower is 1 -sided, the dorsal cell 

 of the ovary smaller or 0, the dorsal petal much shorter than the other two, and the 

 3 dorsal stamens sterile or rudimentarv. 



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