EE VISION OF SOUTH AFRICAN SPECIES 
OF KRHYNEHOSIA 
By EDMUND G. BAKER, F.L.S., Assistant Keeper, Department of Botany, Natural 
History Museum, South Kensington. 
INTRODUCTION. 
AT the request of Dr. I. B. Pole-Evans, C.M.G., and Dr. E. P. Phillips, I have examined 
the collection of the genus Rhynchosia from the National Herbarium at Pretoria, and 
I have also had an opportunity of seeing the plants of this genus from the Herbaria at 
Capetown and Durban, thanks to the courtesy of the Curators of these collections. 
1 am also much indebted to the Director of the Botanical Museum at Upsala for allowing 
me to have the loan of Thunberg’s types, and to Dr. Schinz for kindly sending me portions 
of types of many of his species. 
Since the publication of the Leguminosae by Harvey in the * Flora Capensis,” in 1861-62, 
a considerable amount of additional information has been acquired, and’I am glad to take 
the opportunity offered to me of placing this on record. It is, perhaps, unnecessary to 
discuss in detail publications anterior to the “ Flora (apensis.” De Candolle, in the second 
volume of his “ Prodromus,” in 1825, described several species of Rhymchosig from South 
Africa, among these being R. angustifolia founded on Glycine angustifolia Jacq. and R. 
rigidula founded on Burchell No. 2587. The first of these is synonymous with, and must 
take precedence of, R. uniflora, Harvey, the second is evidently closely allied to R. Totta, 
D.C., but there is a mistake in the Burchell number, and I am unable to find it in the Kew 
Herbarium. Perhaps the other most important publications anterior to the ‘‘ Flora” are 
E. Meyer’s “ Commentorium de Plantis Africae australioris” and Ecklon and Zeyher’s 
“ Enumeration.” Subsequent to the “ Flora ” a good many species have been described, and 
a few preliminary notes on some of these novelties may not be out of place. In the 
“ Journal of Botany,’ Vol. XVI, 131 (1878), Mr. Spencer Moore described R. clivorwm 
-from near Pilgrims Rest. It has been subsequently found in Gazaland by C. F. M. Swynner- 
ton. It is a curious species with erect stem, showy flowers, and with the upper calycine 
lobes shorter than the lowest. 
In 1888 Dr. Schinz described, in “‘ Verhand. Bot. Brand.,” Vol. XXX, two species, 
R. hirsuta, rom Olukonda in Amboland, and R. longiflora rom Great Namaqualand, the 
latter being allied to R. Totta, D.C., but with‘much finer flowers, and in 1894 the same author 
described in “ Bull. Herb. Boiss.,”’ Vol. IT, R. Wood, from Natal, an ally of R. Orthodanum, 
Benth. Dr. Harms in 1899, in Engler’s “ Bot. Jahrb.,” Vol. XXVI, described R. komatiensis 
from between Spitzkop and the Komati River, and R. longipes, founded on Wilms No. 395, 
from Lydenberg. I have compared the latter with the type of R. crassifolia, Benth., and 
do not consider it specifically distinct. In 1897, in the “ Journal of Botany,” Dr. Schlechter 
described the very distinct R. monophylla, and in the same journal, in the same year, Messrs. 
Wood and Evans described the equally distinct R. ovata. In 1905 Dr. Schlechter, in “ Ann. 
Nat. Hoffmus. Wien,” described three species, R. chrysantha, R. Harmsiana, and R. Penthert. 
In 1907, in the “ Vierteljahrschrift Nat. Ges. Zurich,” Dr. Schinz described R. cinnamomea, 
R. congestiflora, R. elegantissima, R. Fleckii, R. namaensis, and R. Rehmanni, and in 1910 
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