122 BOTANY OF SOCOTRA. 



Schweinfurth's specimen, 647, is with doubt regarded as a form of tins 

 species, the leaves being so large, almost an inch long. 



The more luxuriant growths of the plant are liable to the attacks of a gall- 

 forming insect. It affects the receptacle, forming therein a two-celled gall with 

 a hard bony wall. The effect of this upon the surrounding parts is, that whilst 

 the flowers abort, the inner three or four series of phyllaries increase to about 

 twice their ordinary size, and form leaf-like more or less hoary structures, con- 

 taining chlorophyll, and approaching somewhat the form of the foliage leaves. 

 On some of our specimens nearly every flower head is thus altered, and as 

 the shape of the head and the form of the outer phyllaries are not affected, 

 one would at first take this phyllody of the inner phyllaries to be the result of 

 some general cause, and not due to a specific injury in each instance. In a few 

 cases the stems are also injured by a gall. 



2. V. (Tephrodes) spathulata, Hochst. in herb. Schimp. Abyss, (ed. 

 Hohenack.) n. 2133. 



V. cinerascens, Sell. Bip. in Schweinf. Flor. yEthiop. 162 ; Oliv. and Hiern in Oliv. Flor. Trop. 

 Afr. iii. 275. 



Soeotra. Common on the plains about Galonsir. B.C.S. n. 716. 



Distrib. Abyssinia, Arabia, Beloochistan, and north-west India. 



A species having a near alliance, as Ascherson points out (in Schweinf. 

 Flor. yEthiop. 162), with V. atriplicifolia, Jaub. et Spach (111. PI. Or. iv. 94, 

 t. 359), but quite distinct from it, and easily recognised by its more shrubby 

 habit, quite different foliage, and its setaceous outer pappus. 



Some confusion in the nomenclature of the species has occurred. The plant 

 named above by Jaubert and Spach having been identified as Chrysocoma 

 spathulata, Forsk. (Flor. ^Egypt. Arab. 147), Schultz has (loc. cit.) taken 

 Forskal's specific name for it, and this is adopted by Vatke (in (Ester. Bot, 

 Zeitschr. xxv. (1875), 323) in his determination of Hildebrandt's Aden and 

 Somali Land plants. But the name V. spathulata applied by Hochstetter to 

 our plant must take precedence of Schultz's name, and for Forskal's plant 

 Jaubert and Spach's name should be adopted. Oliver and Hiern (loc. cit.) 

 appear to have been misled by this nomenclature, as in a note to V. cinerascens 

 they say, remarking on its resemblance with V. atriplicifolia, " Vatke unites 

 the species." This, however, is not the case. Vatke says " 768 V. spathulata 

 (Forsk.) C. H. Schultz Bip. in Schweinf. Beit. 162 (V. atriplicifolia, Jaub. et 

 Spach), Aden ad montes, &c." I have seen Hildebrandt's n. 768, and it is 

 genuine V. atriplicifolia, Jaub. et Spach. 



3. V. (Tephrodes) cinerea, Less, in Linmea, iv. (1829), 291, and vi. 

 (1831), 673; DC. Prod. v. 24, and vii. 263; Oliv. and Hiern in Oliv. Flor. 

 Trop. Afr. iii. 275 ; Hook. fil. Flor. Brit. Ind. iii. 233. 



