254 I'.OTANY OF SOCOTRA. 



4. PSILOSTACHYS. 



Psilostachys, Hochst. in Flora 1844, Beil. 6, t. 4 ; Benth. et Hook. Gen. PI. iii. 32. 



A genus of three species of small herbs, one being found in Arabia and 

 Nubia, one in eastern Africa, and the third, which occurs in Socotra, is known 

 elsewhere only in eastern India. 



P. sericea, Benth. et Hook. Gen. PI. iii. 32. 



A ■hyranthes sericea, Kou. in Roxb. Flor. Ind. i. 765 ; Wight Ic. t. 726. 



Socotra. Not uncommon near Galonsir and Tamarida. B.C.S. n. 43. 

 Schweinf. n. 328. 



Distrib. Eastern India (Goozerat). 



The Socotra specimens are not so silky as the Indian ones in Kew 

 Herbarium, especially is this the case in Schweinfurth's specimens collected in 

 the palm groves at Tamarida. Our plants, too, are much more lax and strag- 

 gling than the Indian forms, and the peduncles of the inflorescences are, as 

 a rule, much shorter ; indeed, the inflorescences in the axils of most of the 

 leaves are shorter than the leaves themselves. With all these differences there 

 is, I think, no doubt as to the identity of the Indian and Socotran plants. 



5. ^ERUA. 



jEru-a, Forsk. Fl. .Egypt. Arab. 170 ; Benth. et Hook. Gen. PL iii. 34. 



A small genus of some dozen species, inhabitants of the warmer regions of 

 Asia and Africa. Two of the four species found in Socotra are endemic. The 

 others have a wide range through tropical Africa and Asia. 



1. iE. javanica, Juss. in Ann. Mus. Par. ii. (1803), 131 ; Moq. in DC. Prod, 

 xiii. 2, 299; Ach. Rich. Tent. Flor. Abyss, ii. 214; T. Anders, in Journ. Linn. 

 Soc. v. (I860), Suppl. 31 ; Boiss. Flor. Orient, iv. 992; Franch. Sert. Somal. in 

 Miss. Revoil 58 ; Wight Ic. t. 876. 



Socotra. Common. B.C.S. n. 41. 



Distrib. Tropics of the old world from Cape de Verde islands to Java. 

 A plant of considerable variability, and with a large synomymy for which 

 the authors cited may be consulted. 



2. M. microphylla, Moq. in DC. Prod. xiii. 2, 301. Tab. LXXXV. 



Suifruticosa multirainosa erecta v. nana caule subtereti obsolete striato glabro cinerascente ; 

 foliis fasciculatis v. oppositis petiolatis magnitudine variantibus obovatis v. obovato-spathul- 

 atis inferne attenuatis obtusis haud mucronatis glabris vix punctulatis viridibus ; spicis 

 2-3-natis sessilibus divaricatis oblongo-ovatis obtusiusculis villoso-lanatis ; floribus haud 

 nitidis sul-rufo-canescentibus ; ealyce bracteis obtusissimis duplolongiore, sepalis uninerviis. 



