PHANEROGAMS — PROFESSOR BAYLEY BALFOUR. 15 



1. RESEDA. 



Reseda, Linn. Gen. n. 608 ; Benth. et Hook. Gen. PI. i. 112. 



A genus of some twenty-seven species of very variable herbs or half-shrubs 

 occurring in the circum-Mediterranean region, and the dry parts of south-west 

 Asia. 



R. viridis, Balf. fil. in Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin. xi. (1882), 501. 



Fruticulosa, glaberrima ; foliis ellipbicis v. oblongis v. subobovatis obtusis sinuatis interduin. 

 tripartitis longe petiolatis ; pedicellis floribus brevioribus ; sepalis 6 infcegris deciduis ; 

 petalis albis ; filamentis deciduis ; capsulis breviter tridentatis ; seminibus tuberculatis. 



Suffrutex ramosus ramis late patentibus subdecumbentibus. Folia l|-24 poll, longa §-1 poll, 

 lata indivisa sed superiora rarius ternatim partita, lamina elliptica v. rotundato-obovata 

 obtusa ssepe emarginata, basi in petiolum longuum usque ad pollicare cuneatim attenuata, 

 margine sinuata. Spicai longe conica? ; pedicelli \ poll, longi floribus breviores ; bracteos 

 longe subulatse caduca?. Sepala 6 anguste spathulata subrequalia \ poll, longa decidua 

 petalis vix breviora. Petalormn superiorum lamina ad basim in 5 lacinias lineari-spathu- 

 latas subaequales uugui aBquilongas partita. Filamenta clecidua. Capsula glabra breviter 

 tridentata, ore vix constricto, oblonga § poll, longa ; placenta? tenues indivisa?. Semina 

 ^ poll. diam. rugoso-tuberculata. 



Socotra. On the slopes of the hills near Galonsir at, an elevation of 

 1500 feet. B.C.S. n. 230. 



Dlstrib. Endemic. 



This is a very graceful under-shrub, with a woody base and long spreading 

 branches bearing leaves of an exquisite fresh green. Apparently a new species, 

 it has very close affinities with Continental forms, and notably with R. Aucheri, 

 Boiss. (Diagn. Ser. 1. i. 5), a plant of Mesopotamia, Persia, and Scindh. 

 This species, to which R. Alphonsi, Mull, (in Bot. Zeit. 1856, 35) is referred, 

 resembles our plant, especially through Algerian specimens, in habit and 

 foliage, but the leaves are not so fleshy, are more distinctly veined and are 

 usually acute (in Persian plants always so), the pedicels are longer and more 

 delicate, and the capsules stouter and somewhat globose at the base ; the 

 seeds, too, are usually smooth, but sometimes are somewhat rugose 

 punctate. 



T. Anderson (in Journ. Linn. Soc. v. (1860), Suppl. 6) regards R. Aucheri 

 as a form of the widely spread desert species R. pruinosa, Del., from which he 

 distinguishes the Aden plant R. amblyocarpa, Ires. But, as Oliver (Flor. Trop. 

 Afr. i. 103) points out, the punctate seeds of the Aden plant upon which 

 Anderson rests his diagnosis are not sufficient to warrant its separation from 

 R. pruinosa, in which the seeds are usually smooth, and Hooker fil. and Thomson 

 (Hook. Flor. Brit. Ind. i. 181), rightly, I think, keep up R. Aucheri as distinct 

 from R. pruinosa (with which they combine R. bracteata, Boiss.) on the ground 

 of the general absence of pruinose character, rarely or less divided leaves, longly 

 pedicellate flowers, and long linear bracts. 



