DR. HOOKER ON WELWITSCIIIA. 153 



colored sketch of a plant in fruit is reproduced on the first 

 plate of the memoir. It appears as if five-leaved ; but prob- 

 ably one of the two original leaves is split in two, and the 

 other into three segments. As might be inferred from the 

 form and structure, the Welwitschia inhabits a dry region. 

 Mr. Monteiro writes to Dr. Hooker : — 



"... About thirty miles distant from the coast, I passed 

 a plain about three miles across, on which this plant was 

 growing abundantly ; that is to say, I saw about thirty speci- 

 mens on my line of march. The plain was perfectly dry, and 

 bare of other vegetation than the Welwitschia and a little 

 short grass. The ground was a hard quartzose schist. The 

 Welwitschia was generally growing near the little ruts worn 

 in the plain by running water during the rainy season." 



And from Damara Land, Mr. Anderson writes that, — 



" Rain rarely or never falls where this plant exists. (Yet 

 the night dews are heavy, as other authorities mention.) I 

 have crossed and recrossed Damara Land throughout Its en- 

 tire length and breadth, but only found the plant growing on 

 that desperately arid flat, stretching far and wide about Wal- 

 visch Bay." 



We are familiar with plants of very diverse orders of Di- 

 cotyledons and Monocotyledons which are adapted to arid 

 regions by great restriction of surface. Here a similar plan 

 is adopted by a Gymnosperm ; for the resemblance to Conl- 

 ferce and Casuarinece indicated by Dr. AYelwitsch is shown 

 by Dr. Hooker to import a close affinity, the author referring 

 the plant to Gnetacece near to Ephedra. Its permanently 

 abbreviated ascending axis — of which the greater part con- 

 sists of the first internode, below the cotyledons — increases 

 in thickness but hardly in length, develops no other than the 

 seminal pair of leaves, above which the disciform bilobate 

 axile portion or " crown," gradually produced, bears year by 

 year only leafless inflorescence. 



Hiemanthus equally bears a pair of leaves ; but tliese die 

 off as the season of drought advances, when the plant is 

 reduced to* a minimum of surface in its spherical bulb, — 

 which outspreads a new pair of leaves when the rainy season 



