286 BOTANY OF SOCOTRA. 



Bdbiana, is otherwise entirely south African, whilst the other is a Mediterranean 

 genus extending over the Cameroon mountains, and Atlantic Islands to south 

 Africa. 



1. ROMULEA. 



Bomvlca, Maratti, Diss. Romul. et Saturn., Rornre, 1772, 13, 1. 1 ; Benth. et Hook. Gen. PI. iii. 694. 

 A considerable genus of western Europe, the Mediterranean region, and 

 extending through west tropical Africa (occurring on the Cameroon Mountains), 

 and the Atlantic Islands to south Africa. The Socotran plant is the most 

 easterly extension and the only one in this direction. 



R. purpurascens, Tenore, Mem. 117; Jourd. and Four. Ic. t. 106, f. 161, 



var. edulis, Baker in Journ. Linn. Soc. xvi. (1878), 87. 



Bulbo parvo globoso eduli ; foliis 4 angustissime linearibus semipedalibus vel pedalibus margiue 

 revolutis ; pedunculis 2-4-pollicaribus solitariis vel geminis ; spathse valvis oblongo-lanceo- 

 latis exteriore firmiore majore semipollicari ; perianthii tubo erecto limbo triplobreviore 

 segmentis oblongis semipollicaribus saturate purpureis omnibus laxe trinervatis ; genitali- 

 bus limbo duplobrevioribus. 



Trichonema edide, Herbert in herb. Kew. 



Socotra. At over 3000 feet altitude on the Haghier hills. Schweinf. n. 

 580. Nimmo. Wellsted. 



Distrib. Of the species — Mediterranean region. Of the variety — endemic. 



Schweinfurth sends two fruiting pedicels of this plant, and in Kew 

 Herbarium are specimens from Nimmo, to which Herbert has added this note, 

 " Found by Wellsted in Socotra, where the bulb is eaten." Baker (loc. cit.) 

 cites the plant from the shores of the Red Sea as well as Socotra, quoting the 

 ticket attached to Nimmo's specimens, but, as I have so often explained, his 

 plants so labelled are really Socotran. 



We do not appear to have collected this species, and Schweinfurth's very 

 poor specimens are brought from a very high altitude. 



Mr Baker has kindly supplied me with the above description of this variety. 



2. BABIANA. 



Bdbiana, Ker in Keen, et Sims, Ann. Bot. i. 233 ; Benth. et Hook. Gen. PI. iii. 706. 



A small genus of species confined to south Africa, extending from the Cape 

 itself as far north as the Transvaal, with the exception of the one we discovered 

 in Socotra. 



Sir Joseph Hooker, alluding to the Socotran plant in the Botanical Magazine 

 (t. 6585), remarks regarding the genus — "In respect of the distribution of Cape 

 types of vegetation, the occurrence of a Dabiana to the north of the Equator, 

 and especially so far east as the Arabian Sea, is a very interesting fact ; for it 



