76 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



in his lconograpkia Generum Plantar win, refigured the plant, and 

 generically separated it from Cynanchum on account of its remark- 

 able structure. This self-same individual (from which both the 

 above-mentioned figures were made) has been in cultivation at 

 Schonbrunn from Jacquin's time until now, and is the only example 

 of the species known, since Dr. A. Zahlbruckner states that all 

 attempts to propagate it have failed, and no collector appears to 

 have refound it, the only dried specimen in existence, so far as 

 known, being the one exhibited. The living plant was exhibited at 

 the Botanical Congress held at Vienna in 1905, and in the Report 

 of that Congress, p. 77, is a note concerning it, where it is stated 

 that the age of the plant is probably about one hundred and fifty 

 years. But when Jacquin described the plant one hundred years 

 ago he stated that the tuber was about 1 ft. long and 6 in. thick; 

 at the present time, from calculations I have made from the photo- 

 graph of the plant by comparing the length of the largest leaves 

 on the dried specimen with those of the photograph, I find that the 

 tuber is about 7^- in. thick, and stands about 12£ in. above the 

 ground. As this small increase in size during one hundred year3 

 has been obtained under the conditions of cultivation, where the 

 plant would obtain more moisture, and be likely to grow more 

 rapidly than in the very dry climate of its natural habitat, it would 

 appear conclusive that its growth is extremely slow, and that the 

 actual age of the individual in question is probably much more 

 than one hundred and fifty years. Burchell, in a note with a 

 dried specimen of the very closely allied F. glabra Decne., states 

 that the tuber is sometimes as much as 2 ft. in diameter, and, if as 

 slow-growing as F. capensis, this would imply that the plant must 

 attain an age of several centuries. None of the species of FocMea 

 appears to be common, and, as the tubers are eaten by the natives, 

 and do not appear to produce fruit freely, it is possible that they 

 may be approaching extinction. Two other interesting plants— 

 Babiana spathacea Ker, and Eriosphara Oculuscati Less. — were 

 exhibited further to illustrate how very rare or very local some of 

 the South African plants are, since neither of these two has been 

 collected by any botanical traveller since Thunberg found them in 

 1774, until these specimens were gathered. The Babiana was 

 originally described as Gladiolus spathactus Linn. f. Suppl. V- 96 ' 

 from a specimen collected by Thunberg. The Friosphara was 

 originally described as Gnaphalium Oculus-Cati Linn. f. Suppl- 

 364, from a specimen collected by Sparrman ; a specimen of it ™ 

 Thunberg's herbarium, upon which Lessing founded the genus 

 Eriosphara, is figured by Harvey in his Thesaurus Capensis, vol. u. 

 p. 30, t. 149. 



At the same meeting Dr. A. B. Rendle presented a report on the 

 botanical collections made by Dr. W. A. Cunnington in Lakes 

 Nyasa, Tanganyika, and the Victoria Nyanza, 1904-5. Dr. Cun- 

 nmgton spent about three weeks on and about Lake Nyasa, nearly 

 nine months at Lake Tanganyika, and less than a fortnight on the 

 West of the Victoria Nyanza. His object was to make as comply 

 a collection as possible of the plants and animals, especially from 



