Plate 40. 

 SARCOCAULON kigidum. 



South- West Africa. 



Gekaniaceae. Tribe Geranieae. 

 Sarcocaulon, Sweet; Benth. et HooTc.f. Gen. Plant, vol. i. p. 272. 



Sarcocaulon rigidum, Schinz in Verh. Bot. Ver. Brand, vol. xxix. p. 59, 



(1888). 



This remarkable plant, one of the so-called " Bushman's 

 Candles" or " Candle Bush," flowered in the garden of the 

 Division of Botany, Pretoria, in September, 1919. The 

 specimens were collected by Major C. W. Lewis at Aus 

 in South- West Africa. It is very closely allied to S. Burmanni 

 Sweet* We are indebted to the Director of the Royal 

 Botanic Gardens, Kew, for the determination. 



The plant appears to do quite well in cultivation as 

 specimens have flowered and set mature fruit for two seasons 

 at Pretoria. 



Desceiption : — Stems very stout and smooth, with a waxy 

 epidermis. Primary leaves with long petioles, which, after the 

 blade falls off, are hardened so as to form thorns 1*5-4 cm. long ; 

 lamina 1-1*6 cm. long, 5-9 mm. broad, obovate, cuneate at 

 the base, retuse or sometimes 3-toothed at the apex, glaucous, 



* Note. — As Dr. Phillips has compared this plant with S. Burmanni Sweet, 

 I would like to point out that it is very doubtful if the S. Bermanni of 

 the Flora Capensis and the specimens in Herbaria so named, really represent 

 the plant figured by Burmann, upon which that species was founded. 

 Burmann (Rar. Afr. PL p. 7, t. 31) represents a plant with stems about half 

 as thick as those of S. rigidum, constricted into short globose joints, with 

 crenate (not entire) leaves and small flowers, of which he does not state the 

 colours. I am doubtful if this plant is at present correctly represented in 

 Herbaria. 



It may also be well to point out that although the authority for the genus 

 Sarcocaulon and the species S. Burmanni and S. Heritieri are attributed to 

 De Candolle in the Flora Capensis they should be credited to Sweet, since 

 De Candolle described them both as species of Monsonia under the section 

 Sarcocaulon, which Sweet rightly recognised as a distinct genus. 



N. B. Brown. 



