PHANEROGAMS— PROFESSOR BAYLEY BALFOUR. 181 



Dr Nimmo's plant in Kew Herbarium is of this form, and there is also a 

 similar plant in Kew Herbarium brought by Major Madden from the neighbour- 

 hood of Suez. 



N. 536 is a much less hispid form, except on the very young buds, and the 

 tuberculation of the leaves, which are much larger than in our specimens, is 

 evident. The deeply cut calyx is shortly hispid ; the limb of the corolla 

 is cut through a third of its extent ; the anthers are oblong-ovate, and at the 

 apex, end abruptly and bear a small cusp ; the stigmatic part of the style is 

 hairy, and is equal in length to the basal portion. This form is not unlike 

 specimens of the plant from Yemen collected by Bove. 



There is a plant in Kew Herbarium brought from Nubia by Schweinfurth, 

 and labelled by him Lithospermum lignosum (n. 2111), which is a Heliotropium, 

 nearly allied to, if not identical with, the species under consideration, and 

 especially with the form of it last referred to. The differences it exhibits are 

 these, — the calyx is divided through half or three-quarters of its length, and the 

 segments are somewhat blunt, rather pubescent than hispid ; the corolla is but 

 slightly pubescent externally, and the basal part of the style is much shorter 

 than the hairy upper stigmatic portion. 



I have contented myself with merely indicating the features of the Socotran 

 forms, including them in this species without attempting to constitute varieties. 

 How far it is possible to recognise varieties, or to break up this assumed species 

 into a series of nearly allied species, is a question that can only be settled after an 

 examination of a more extended set of specimens than I have been able to see. 



4. H. rariflorum, Stocks in Hook. Kew Joum. Bot. iv. (1852), 174 ; 

 Boiss. Flor. Orient, iv. 144 ; Clarke in Hook. Flor. Brit. Ind. iv. 152. 

 Lithospermum leucophlceum, Schweiuf. in herb. Afr. Cent. n. 696. 



Soeotra. On the Haghier range near Tamarida. B.C.S. n. 627. 

 Schweinf. n. 439. 



Distrib. Scindh, Beloochistan, Nubia. 

 An interesting species in respect of its flowers, which have the corolline lobes 

 distinctly hooded, and the stamens with very small anthers inserted at the top 

 of the corolline tube ; the stigma, too, is very small, spongy, and capitate. An- 

 other interesting feature is the papery bark, which, white at first, peels off in 

 layers, the under layers being of a dark reddish-brown. The fruit in the Scindh 

 plant has a clothing of bristling hairs, and the Nubian specimens exhibit this 

 also. In some of our plants the hairs on the fruit are quite appressed. 



5. H. (Heliophytum) pterocarpum, Hochst. et Steud. in herb. Schimp. 

 Arab. n. 835. 



Heliophytum pterocarpum, DC. Prod. ix. 552. 



Soeotra. On the slopes of Haghier. B.C.S. n. 535. 



