68 XIII, XYRIDES. [Xyris 
Leaves 7 to 10 in. long including the sheath (13 to 2} in.), 
scarcely 1 to 12 lines broad; peduncles reaching 30 in.; sheath 3 
to Gin. Spikes 4 to 6 lineseach way ; lower bracts about 3 lines 
long by 12 to 2 lines broad; lateral sepals 3} lines; unripe fr. 
scarcely 13 line. 
Near X. Rehmanni Nilss. (Transvaal), but distinguished by its 
more strongly mucronate sepals with keels ciliate to the base of 
the mucro; it is also a stronger more rigid plant. 
Hvit_a.—Plentiful in spongy places near streams round Lopollo, 
growing with species of Aroides and Gladiolus. In fl. and fr. Dec. 
1859. No. 2474. 
3. X. Welwitschii Rendle sp. nov. 
Leaves very narrowly ensiform or linear above the plicate 
bases and sheath, acute, submembranous, margin and sometimes 
faces scabrid; peduncles slender, wiry, 2 to 3 times the length 
of the leaves, with scabrid longitudinal ridges and a leaf-like 
sheath 4 to 4 its length; spikes pale brown, ellipsoidal when 
young, hemispherical when mature ; bracts coriaceous becoming 
somewhat scarious near the broad entire margins, 3-nerved, the 
lowest broadly ovate, becoming oval to obovate above; lateral 
sepals slightly protruding, spathulately oblanceolate, blunt, keel 
minutely hispidulous from the middle to near the apex, pale 
straw-coloured, odd sepal crimson ; corolla yellow; anthers large, 
linear-oblong, exceeding the shortly tufted pilose staminodes ; 
capsule obovately elliptical, seeds dull black, ellipsoidal with 
minutely umbonate ends and well-marked longitudinal ridges 
united by inconspicuous transverse ladder-like markings. 
Leaves 3 to 6 in. long, 1 line or a little less in breadth; 
peduncles to 14 in. long, ¥ to 3 line thick; spikes about 4 lines 
long by 2} to 43 in diameter. Bracts 2 to 3 lines long by 13 to 
23 broad ; sepals a little over 3 lines long, 12 to 1$ line broad 
when folded; anthers scarcely ] line long. Capsule 24 lines long. 
Near Y. straminea Nilss., but distinguished by its larger 
spikes and flowers, and sculptured dull black seeds. 
HvILua.—Wooded marshy meadows between Lopollo and Monino. 
Beginning of April 1860. No. 2465. 
4, X. capensis Thunb. Prodr. Pl. Capens. p. 12 (1794); Nilss., 
dc. ; Durand & Schinz, ic, p. 420. 
Huitia.—Habit exactly like some capitate species of Juncus. 
Leaves flat, narrowly linear, green, culms strict, deeply furrowed, twice 
as long. Flowers rather small, yellow. Boggy places near the banks 
of the river of Mumpulla. In fl. and fr. Oct. 1859. No. 2473. 
5. X. reptans Rendle sp. nov. 
Cespitose, spreading by a slender rhizome clothed with root- 
fibres and fibrous remains of leaf-sheaths ; leaves linear, tapering 
to a blunt apex and narrowing below to the. long, green, 
pale, scarious-margined sheath, glabrous but like the slender 
flattened peduncle striolate, peduncle a little longer than the 
leaves, enclosed for a quarter of its length in a flattened sheath 
