142 BOTANY OF SOCOTRA. 



17. VOLUTARELLA. 



Vohctarella, Cass, in Bull. Pkilom. 1816, and in Diet. Sc. Nat. lviii. (1829), 451 ; Benth. et 

 Hook. Gen. PI. ii. 476. 



A genus of a few herbaceous species distributed in northern Africa, south 

 Europe, and western Asia. One species extends to India. 



V. Lippii, Cass, in Diet. Sc. Nat. xliv. (1826), 39 ; Benth. et Hook. Gen. 

 PI. ii. 476. 



Ambcrboa Lippii, DC. Prod. vi. 559 ; Boiss. Flor. Orient, iii. 606. 

 Centaurea Lippii, Linn. Sp. 1286 ; Schkuhr Handb. t. 261. 



Soeotra. Near Tamarida. B.C.S. n. 303. 



Distrib. From the Canary Islands and south Spain, through north Africa 

 to Arabia. 



I have hesitated to make a new species of the Socotran plant, although it 

 differs in some characters from the typical V. Lippii, as our material from Soeotra 

 consists of only one specimen, gathered on the plains near Tamarida. This has 

 very woolly cobwebbed stems, and altogether a softer habit than the African 

 and Arabian plants. The heads, too, are narrower with less scarious cusps to 

 the phyllaries, and the corolla tube is not nearly so villous. It may be noted 

 that the type is a somewhat variable plant. 



18. DICOMA. 



Dicoma, Cass, in Bull. Pkilom. 1817, and in Diet. Sc. Nat xiii. (1819) ; 194 ; Beutk. et Hook. 



Gen. PI. ii. 492. 



A genus of about eighteen species of small rigid woody plants, having their 

 headquarters in south Africa ; some four species are spread through tropical 

 Africa, and one of them is also distributed in the Indian peninsula. One 

 Socotran species is endemic, the other is an African and western Asiatic form. 



1. D. tomentosa, Cass, in Bull. Philom. 1818, and in Diet. Sc. Nat. 

 xiii. (1819), 195 ; DC. Prod. vii. 36 ; Oliv. and Hiern in Oliv. Flor. Trop. Afr. 

 iii. 443 ; Hook. fil. Flor. Brit. Ind. iii. 387. 



J), lanuginosa, DC. Prod. vii. 36 ; Wigkt Ic. t. 1140. 



Soeotra. On Haghier near Tamarida. B.C.S. n. 228. Schweinf. n. 438. 



Distrib. Tropical Africa, Indian peninsula, and south-west Asia. Widely 

 spread. 



A not common plant on Soeotra. 



2. D. cana, Balf. fil. in Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin. xi. (1882), 841. Tab. XLIL 



Prostrata cano-tomentosa lignosa ; foliis linearibus obtusis sessilibus crassis persistentibus ; 

 capitulis solitariis pseudo-terminalibus subsessilibus paucifloris komogamis discoideis; 

 pbyllariis pallidis glabris, intimis membranaceis, exterioribus gradatim minoribus rigidis 

 subulato-punctatis ; receptaculo alveolato ; ackeuiis dense setosis ; pappi setis con- 

 formibus serrulato-barbellatis. 



