120 BOTANY OF SOCOTRA. 



utrinque glabro reticulato-venuloso 6-ficlo, lobis uncinulatis inaequalibus ; capsulis calyci 

 sequilongis puberulis antice obcuneatim sulcatis, loculis sterilibus subteretibus. 

 Herba pusilla tenuis 3-5-pollicaris. Caulis sulcatus subpaleaceo-puberulus divaricatim sparsim 

 bipartim ramosus. Folia inferiora angusle oblongo-elliptica v. oblanceolata obtusa basi 

 attenuata in pctiolum brevem alatum amplexicaule 1 poll, longa £-£ poll, lata obscure 

 dentata, superiora oblanceolata v. linearia remote acute dentata v. interdum trilobata lobis 

 lateralibus minimis angustatis, omnia revoluta membranacea glabra v. inconspicue puberula. 

 Cymce parvre 3-4-flor3e subcapital, bracteis auguste-lanceolatis acutis scarioso-marginatis 

 glabris. Calyx rotato-companulatus utrinque glaber berbaceus perspicue reticulato-venul- 

 osus capsulo fere sequilongus apice latior ultra medium imequaliter sinuato-quinquifidus, 

 lobis subtriangularibus in cuspides uncinulatas productis, postico maximo. Capsula ovoidea 

 subtetragona vix ^ poll, longa adpresse-puberula postice subplana antice sulco profundo 

 obcuneato v. obovato fructu angustiore et paullo breviore notata, loculis sterilibus introrsum 

 contiguis subteretibus fertili triangulari transverse elongato subminoribus. 



Socotra. A not uncommon annual on dry hill slopes near Galonsir, along 

 with Campanula dichotoma, Erythrcea Centaurium, and others. B.C.S. n. 551. 



Distrib. Endemic. 



Apparently a quite distinct species of the section Platycoelw. Its nearest 

 allies are found in the Spanish V. divaricaia, Lange (Krok Monog. in k. Svensk. 

 Vetensk. Akad. Handl. v. (1864), n. 1. 77, t. iii, f. 31), the widely spread 

 V. coronata, Willd. (Krok loc. cit. 78, t. iii, f. 32), a plant of Europe and the 

 Mediterranean region, and V. Kotsckyi, Boiss. (Krok loc. cit. 80, t. iii, f. 33), a 

 Syrian species. From all of them it differs in its delicate habit and very small- 

 headed cymes with few flowers, whilst the characters of the fruit and calyx are 

 diagnostic in each instance. The Spanish plant is the most nearly allied, but has 

 more widely grooved fruits and a smaller calyx with equal lobes. Amongst the 

 species of the section which have the calyx -limb internally hirsute, V. chlorodonta, 

 Coss. and Dur. (Krok loc. cit. 81, t. iii, f. 35), has the greatest resemblance to it. 



Order XXXVI. COMPOSITE. 



A very vast order, the third largest in the flora, comprising twenty-four 

 genera. Of these, eleven are genera containing weeds widely spread in both 

 hemispheres, often of cultivation ; four have a pretty wide old-world distribution, 

 one of them having its headquarters at the Cape of Good Hope, another in the 

 Mediterranean region; three, — Ileterachama, Volutarella, and Reichardia, — have 

 a more limited old-world distribution, being characteristic of northern Africa and 

 south-western and western Asia, the last two reaching into south Europe ; three, 

 — Tripteris, Dicoma, and Euryops, — are essentially south African genera, but by 

 isolated species are represented in north Africa, Euryops spreading to Arabia, 

 and Dicoma to the Indian peninsula ; one, Psiadia, is a tropical African and 

 Indian Ocean island genus, with a species in Arabia ; Prenanthes is an Asiatic, 

 European, and American genus, absent from Africa, and Achyrocline is an 

 American genus, with a representative in tropical Africa and Madagascar. 



