Contributions to the African Flora. 391 



apice calloso-mucronulatis. Pedunculi axillares, solitarii, graciles, 

 foliis ssepius longiores. Involucri squama3 6-7, subaequales, oblonga3 

 subacutae. Flores radii 6-7, disci 9-12 (ut videtur ex siccis, flavi). 



Lasiocoma peteophiloides (DC), Bolus ; sp. unica. Eriocephalus ? 

 petrophiloidesDC, Prodr. vi. 146; Harv. & Sond., Flora Capensis, 

 iii., 201. 



Folia 1 "5-2-5 cm. longa, segmentis 0-07-0*l cm. latis; pedunculi 

 l"5-2-5 cm. longi ; capitulo cum lana achaeniorum, 0"8-l'l cm. longa; 

 involucrum 0'4:5-0'7 cm. longum ; radii ligulae 0-35 cm. longas ; pappi 

 setae fl. £ - 2 cm. longae ; achaenia fl. 5 0-5 cm. longa. 



Hab. : South Africa, without station, Drege ; Ecklon, 446 (in herb. 

 Sonder). Cape Colony : Nama'land Minor, near Klipfontein, in open 

 places, alt. 950 meters, Sept. (1883), Bolus, in MacOwan & Bolus, 

 herb. Norm. Aust.-Afr., 426 (in herbb. Kew, Brit. Mus., Paris, 

 Berlin, &c.) ; Calvinia Division, near Nieuwoudtville, C. L. Leipoldt, 

 760 ! " Very common, growing in sandy soil in big patches, fl. May 

 to Oct., and said to be a very fine ' sheep-bush ' : " (Collector's note). 



The affinity of the genus is clearly with Euryops, from which it is 

 separated by the sterile achenes of the disk and by the absence of 

 pappus on the 2 flowers. The remarkably long accrescent hairs on 

 the achenes of the $ flowers are a further peculiar character ; for 

 while the achenes of Euryops are commonly villous, there is nothing 

 in that genus, so far as known to me, approaching those of this plant, 

 which led De Candolle and Harvey to suppose that it might be an 

 Eriocephalus. 



The present plant has a rather singular history. First found by 

 Drege and by Ecklon, it was described by De Candolle in 1837 (loc. 

 cit.) ; but so imperfect were the specimens that he expressed much 

 doubt as to the genus. Harvey, in 1864, had both Drege's and 

 Ecklon 's specimens before him, yet fared no better. He followed 

 De Candolle in placing them, with doubt, in Eriocephalus, but says : 

 " A most remarkable species, unlike any other, and possibly not of 

 this genus ; but the fl.-heads, in the only specimens I have seen, have 

 had their contents eaten by insects, leaving merely the outer invol. 

 and a dense tuft of discoloured wool. "What may be the origin of 

 this wool, whether from an inner invol. or from the achenes, remains 

 undetermined." In 1883 the plant numbered 426 in the Herb. Norm. 

 Austro-Africanum was found by me, and being deceived by the 

 similarity of the involucre was distributed by me, without having dis- 

 sected it, as a Euryops. A more recent examination appeared to 

 show its distinctness from that genus, and a reference to the descrip- 

 tion of Eriocephalus petrophiloides DC, seemed to leave little doubt 



