202 BOTANY OF SOCOTRA. 



Distrib. From Canary Islands through north Africa, Syria, Abyssinia, and 

 Somali Land to Persia. 



Very common on the hill slopes, growing with such other annuals as 

 Campanula dichotoma, Erytkrcea Centaariiun, &c. 



6. LINDENBERGIA. 



Linclenberyia, Lehtn. in Link et Otto, Ic. PI. Ear. i. 95, t. 48 ; Benth. et Hook. Gen. PI. ii. 948. 



A small genus of nine species of herbs, usually hairy, distributed in southern 

 Asia and east tropical Africa. 



L. sinaica, Benth. Scroph. Ind. 22, and in DC. Prod. x. 377 ; T. Anders, 

 in Journ. Linn. Soc. v. (1860), Suppl. 27; Boiss. Flor. Orient, iv. 425. 

 Bovca sinaica, Dene, in Ann. Sc. Nat. ser. 2, ii. (1834), 253. 



Socotra. On the plains. B.C.S. nn. 70, 530. Schweinf. n. 332. 



Distrib. From Nubia and Egypt, along the shores of the Red Sea to 

 Arabia and Persia. 



As it occurs on Socotra this plant is liable to some variation. In some 

 localities it forms a hard-wooded herb with stiff erect branches, in others it has 

 a delicate trailing habit. The leaves, too, vary in size. Some of the woody 

 specimens present only sessile or subsessile, very minute leaves, and in such 

 forms the flowers are usually small, with corollas only twice as long as the 

 calyx. In the delicate spreading specimens the leaves have long stalks and the 

 flowers are large, the corolla usually three times, or more, the length of the 

 calyx. 



The woody somewhat shrubby specimens appear so very different from the 

 other forms, which more nearly resemble the type, that one might expect they 

 would constitute a distinct species. But I can draw up no sufficient diagnosis 

 between the forms, and indeed amongst continental specimens, I find nearly 

 as much variation. 



7. HERPESTIS. 



Herpcstis, Gartn. fil. Fruct. iii. 18G, t. 214; Benth. et Hook. Gen. PI. ii. 951. 



A genus of about fifty species of herbs, found in the warmer regions of both 

 hemispheres. Especially abundant in America. 



H. Monnieria, H. B. K. Nov. Gen. et Sp. ii. 366; Benth. in DC. Prod. x. 

 400 ; Boiss. Flor. Orient, iv. 426 ; Bot. Mag. t. 2557. 



Socotra. Common in marshy places. B.C.S. n. 34. Schweinf. nn. 273, 

 701 in lit. 



Distrib. Cosmopolitan in the tropics. 



