290 BOTANY OF SOCOTRA. 



known from Socotra. One of these, Draccvna, is dispersed over the whole globe, 

 but the section to which the Socotran species belongs is limited to a few 

 spots in north Africa and the Atlantic islands ; the genus Asparagus, has a 

 general old world distribution; three — Asphodclus, Dipcadi, and Urginea— reach 

 from the Atlantic islands through Africa and the Mediterranean region (two of 

 them extending to south Africa) to northern India; one — Anlhericum— is 

 world-wide except in Asia, and Aloe is an African, especially south African, 

 genus, reaching to the Atlantic and Indian Ocean Islands. 



1. ASPARAGUS. 



Asparagus, Linn. Gen. n. 424; Benth. et Hook. Gen. PI. iii. 725. 



A large genus widely dispersed in the warmer and temperate regions of 

 the old world. 



A. africanus, Lamk. Encyc. i. 295 ; Baker in Journ. Linn. Soc. xiv. 

 (1875), 619. 



Asparajopsis Lamarckii, Kunth Enum. v. 87. 

 A. juniperina, Kunth Enum. v. 85. 



var. microcarpus, Balf. fil. in Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin. xii. (1883), 411. 



Suffruticosus intricato-ramosus cortice griseo nitido levi ramulis anfractuosis ; foliis spinosis 

 brevibus -^ poll, longis recurvis; floribus in umbellis interdum paucis; baccis parvis \ 

 poll. diam. pedicello brevi. 



Socotra. Abundant on the plains. B.C.S. n. 16. Schweinf. n. 374. 



Distrib. Of the species — Tropical and south Africa. Of the variety — endemic. 



Our Socotran plant presents several features of difference from the type of 

 the species, but the technical differences between them are so slight, more 

 especially in the case of Cape forms described as Asparagopsis juniperina by 

 Kunth, that I can get no good characters for a specific diagnosis and I have 

 only made it a variety. Its most prominent features are its densely and in- 

 tricately branched habit with numerous spines and short anfractuose twigs 

 producing a spine at each node. The cladodes are, perhaps, as a rule shorter 

 and thinner than is typical. The flowers are usually slightly smaller and shorter 

 with few developing in the umbels, sometimes reduced to one but commonly 

 two or three, this last being a character in which it approaches the Indian 

 A. subulatus, Steud. (in Hohen. PL Ind. Exsicc. No. 1303), and the south 

 African A. consanguineus, Baker [I.e. 615). Finally, the fruit is to be noted 

 as it is much smaller, only one-third the size, than in the type, and the pedicels 

 are also much shorter. This is one of the commonest plants on the plains 

 about Galonsir and elsewhere. 



2. ALOE. 



Aloe, Linn. Gun. n. 430; Benth. et Hook. Gen. PL iii. 776. 



A considerable genus with headquarters in south Africa and representatives 



