PHANEROGAMS— PROFESSOR BAYLEY BALFOUR. 59 



younger twigs showing leaves, and these soon fall off. It is one of the commonest 

 plants on the limestone plain about Galonsir, forming small clumps with 

 intertwined branches. 



3. V. paniculata, Balf. fil. in Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin. xi. (1882), 507. 



Scandens caulibus anguste alatis, juvenilibus quadrangulatis carnosis ; foliis magnis breviter 

 palmatim 3-5-lobatis basi cordatis late crenatis glabris ; cyrais subumbellatim paniculatis; 

 pedicellis tenuibus ; floribus tetrameris ; fructu conico nigrescente. 



Scandens et late patens. Caules altiores subteretes cum alis quatuor angustis, juveniles 

 quadrangulares, carnosi ad nodos contracti, internodiis 4 poll, longis cystolitheis 

 dense papillosis et siccis corrugatis. Folia magna fere pedalia, lamina |-ped. diam 

 breviter palmatim 3-5-lobata basi cordata v. subhastata margine late crenata cum mucrone 

 parvo in intervallis ad apices venorum carnosa ; petiolus glaber lamina brevior. Cirrhi 

 oppositifolii lignosi articulati apice cochleariformes. Flores in cymas subumbellatim pani- 

 culatas patentes | poll. diam. glabras dispositi ; pedicelli tenues £ poll, longi. Calyx 4- 

 dentatus. Petala 4 alte cucullata. Stamina 4. Stylus crassus. Fructus £ poll, longus 

 conicus glaber nigrescens longe pedicellatus. 



Nom. Vern. Atarha (B.C.S.). Atherhaa (Schweinf.). 



Soeotra. Common, climbing amongst small trees on the hill slopes. 

 B.C.S. n. 413. Schweinf. n. 510. 



Distrib. Endemic. 



A distinct species, having a distant affinity with V. quaclrangularis, Wall., 

 although its nearest ally is probably the imperfectly known V. (Cissus) 

 tetragona, Harvey (in Harv. and Sond. Flor. Cap. i. 249), a plant of Natal. Of 

 that species, founded by Harvey upon specimens grown by Mr Wilson Saunders 

 from plants sent home by Plant, I have seen the type in Kew Herbarium, con- 

 sisting of two internodes with three leaves ; and although they much resemble 

 some of the Socotran specimens, they are hardly conspecific. It may, however, 

 turn out that Harvey's plant is the same as one collected by Schweinfurth in 

 central Africa (nn. 274, 401), and sent out as Cissus quadrangularis, Wall. — a 

 species which it certainly is not, differing very markedly from the Indian types, 

 and also from the other African forms of that species by its longer and more freely 

 branching inflorescence and longer pedicelled flowers, as well as in the general 

 form of the leaf. These are characters in which it approaches somewhat our 

 Socotran plant here described, with which it has altogether many points of 

 resemblance. 



A plant abundant all over the wooded slopes of the hills. 



Order XXIV. SAPINDACEiE. 



A very large family, abundantly spread within the tropics, more rare in 

 temperate regions. Two genera are found in Soeotra ; one cosmopolitan in 

 the tropics, but with its greatest development in America, the other chiefly 

 Australian, but with a few representatives in other regions. 



