(43) 



SOME NEW SOUTH AFEICAN SUCCULENTS. 



By E. Marloth, Ph.D., M.A. 



With Plate Y. 



(Eead May 1, 1907.) 



The succulent plants otfer special difficulties to the collector as 

 well as the describing botanist. While the former has great trouble 

 in turning such plants into proper herbarium specimens, the latter is 

 often unable to describe the form of the organs correctly from the 

 dried plants or to recognise specimens from the description of other 

 authors. It is for these reasons in particular that our knowledge 

 of these plants is more defective than that of other ecological 

 groujts, and as South Africa is specially rich in succulent forms the 

 number of undescribed or insufficiently described species is very 

 considerable. 



Lately some improvement has been effected in this respect by the 

 revival of the interest in the cultivation of succulent plants here at 

 the Cape as well as in Europe, but much remains to be done. The 

 species described in this paper were mostly collected in a barren 

 state and cultivated in my garden until they flowered ; two of them 

 have been described before, the others are new to science. 



AIZOACE^. 



Mesembeianthemum simulans, n. spec. 

 Fig. 7, Plate V. 



Planta acaulis. Folia bina, basi connata, triangularia triquetraque, 

 supra planiuscula, valde punctato-rugosa. Flores 1-4, sessiles e 

 centro foliorum, flavi. 



Eoot woody, as thick as a small finger, branching. Leaves larger 

 than in any other species, flat on or in the soil or between stones, 

 rust-coloured or brownish grey. Their dimensions are : Length 

 5-9 cm., width 3-5 cm., thickness 2-3 cm. 



