150 BOTANY OF SOCOTRA. 



t. 1075 ; Boiss. in DC. Prod. xii. 696, and Flor. Orient, iv. 876 ; Clarke in Hook. 

 Flor. Brit. Ind. iii. 481. 



V. arabica, Boiss. in DC. Prod. loc. cit., 



var. socotrana,Balf. fil. in Proc. Eoy. Soc. Edin. xiii. (1883). 



Omnino tenuior ; foliis minoribus ssepe vix perfoliatis et retusis ; innorescentia multo pseudo- 

 furcatim ramosissima, racemis ultiruis 1-2 poll, longis ; bracteolis lanceolatis ; sepalis 

 anguste lanceolatis margine membranaceis superne obscure transverse bullato-undulatis 

 inferne truncatis ; corollas limbo sinu apicali vix mucronulato. 



Nom. Vern. Salepho (B.C.S.). 



Socotra. On the slopes of Haghier. B.C.S. n. 416. Schweinf. nn. 406 

 in lit., 523. 



Distrib. Arabia and north-west India. 



I have had some hesitation in referring the Socotran plant to this species, 

 but have concluded, after examination of specimens in Kew Herbarium, that it 

 should be considered as conspecific, though there are several points of diver- 

 gence. 



Firstly, as regards habit,— the Indian and Arabian plant is altogether stouter 

 than the Socotran usually is, but at times the latter assumes a tolerably robust 

 habit. In foliage, — I have never seen leaves in the Socotran plant so large as 

 those figured by Wight, but these appear to have been exceptionally large, and 

 in Kew Herbarium I only find one specimen showing leaves at all approaching 

 them in size. Then in inflorescence, — this, in our Socotran plant, is a sympodi- 

 ally branched, lax, spreading panicle, the terminal racemes of which are rarely 

 over an inch and a half or two inches in length. In the type form the inflores- 

 cence is not so freely branched, and the ultimates are often six inches or more 

 long. The bracts in our specimens are hardly so cuspidate as in the type, and 

 the sepals are not so broad, their membranous margin is narrower, with its trans- 

 verse bullate undulation very slightly marked, indeed conspicuous only towards 

 the apex of the sepal, and at the base it is not so rounded but more abruptly trun- 

 cate. There are thus a considerable number of points in which our plant differs 

 from the type, though, as regards the calycine characters, the Arabian speci- 

 mens supply an intermediate condition between the Indian and the Socotran 

 forms; but it is, I believe, deserving of a varietal designation as an insular form. 



2. V. pendula, Baif. fil. in Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin. xii. (1883), 76. 

 Tab. XL1V. 



Fruticosa ramis pendulis ; inflorescentia diffusa paniculata ; sepalorum marginibus membranac- 

 eis vix bullatis intus glandulis instructis ; corolbje lobis sinu non mucronulato. 



Frutex elatus 10-pedalis tenuis ramis elongatis virgatis pendulis striatis glaucis in infloresc- 

 entiam gradatim excurreutibus. Folia late cuneato v. trapeziformi-spathulata §-1 poll, 

 longa -f^-f poll, lata apice mucronatav. subretusa basi in petiolum angustumattenuatasub- 

 crassiuscula subtus lepidota. Flares brevissime pcdicellata in racemos breves a nfractuosos 



