70 XIII, XYRIDEZ. [Xyris 
Huitita.—Sunny wooded places (not or scarcely damp) between 
Lopollo and Monino, growing with species of Protea and Gladiolus. 
Feb. 1860. No. 2468. 
7. X. affinis Welw. ms. in herb. 
Widely cespitose; habit of X. nivea but leaves flattened, 
narrowly linear acute from a broader sheath ; sheaths of withered 
leaves persistent, dark brown with brown, hairy margins ; peduncle 
erect slender subcompressed ; spikes few (5 or 6) flowered, ellip- 
soidal to obovoid when young becoming subglobose with a somewhat 
flattened top when ripe ; bracts more or less broadly bluntly ellip- 
tical sometimes tending to obovate, 3-nerved, entire, dark brown 
with lighter subscarious margins ; lateral sepals narrower than 
in XY. nivea, oblanceolate, keel narrowly winged for + the length 
from the base and scabridulous above the base; corolla yellow, 
lobes obovate, stamens slightly exceeding the short deep yellow 
2-armed pilose staminodes; anthers orange in bud ; ovary ellipsoid 
becoming oblanceolate as it ripens; seeds (unripe) as in X. nivea. 
Leaves 3 to 42 in. long including sheath (1 in. or less), $ to 4 
line broad. Peduncles 9 to 10 in. long, + to 4 line broad, sheath 
leafless, minutely apiculate, 24 to 3 in long; spikes 2} to 3 lines 
long and nearly as broad. Bracts 13 to little over 2 lines long by 
little over 1 to nearly 2 lines broad. Sepals 2 lines by 3 line; 
anthers 1 line by scarcely 3 line. Fruit (unripe) 13 by 4 line 
broad near the apex, which is beaked with the persistent base of 
the style. 
Near X. nivea but distinguished by its flat leaves, yellow flowers 
and narrower more prominently keeled lateral sepals. 
Huitia.—Resembling X. nivea in habit but distinguished besides 
other characters by its constantly yellow flowers, angled less tortuose 
peduncle, and shorter flattened green not glaucous leaves. Elevated 
damp meadows on Morro de Monino at 5000 feet. Beginning of April 
1860. No. 2467. 
8. X. pumila Rendle sp. nov. 
Small with stiff habit, the hard woody cylindrical main stem 
bearing several crowded regularly distichous-leaved branches ; 
persistent sheathing bases of old leaves chestnut-brown, new leaves 
glabrous, flattened, linear, passing above into a very acute or sub- 
aristate apex, and below into the stiff dry upwardly tapering 
chestnut-brown sheath ; peduncles rigid, erect, terete, glabrous, 
exceeding the leaves, spikes few- (3-) flowered, narrowly ellipsoidal 
slightly drawn out at the base; bracts dark chesnut-brown with 
paler entire margin, outer exposed surface finely muriculate, 
coriaceous, the lowest subovately elliptical with a pair of lateral 
nerves meeting the median about 3 below the blunt apex, back 
slightly keeled below the apex, the upper becoming elliptical to 
suborbicular and very concave above with the two lateral veins 
converging nearer the apex ; lateral sepals lanceolate, blunt, with 
a brown dorsal keel more or less scabridulous from about 4 above 
the base to the apex, sides paler unequal, posterior sepal orange- 
crimson, narrowly ellipsoidal; corolla bright yellow, anthers in 
