150 
ellipsoid, papillate, but apparently with smaller papillae than those on the stem. Flowers | 
solitary at the ends of the short branchlets. Pedicel 24-3 lines long, slender. Calyx 
5-lobed, papillate ; tube (o vary) with a very distinct EE under the base. of the 
lobes and thereabout 1 line in diameter, and there is also a shght constriction at its base, 
where it joins the pedicel ; lobes unequal, 4-1 line long, broadly ovate, obtuse. The other 
parts of the flower do not admit of examination, and the petals are destroyed. There 
are some better specimens of this plant at the British Museum, collected by Masson, who 
travelled with Thunberg. These have leaves 1—2 lines long, varying from subglobose to. 
cylindric. The pedicels vary from 1-6 lines long. and the corolla appears to be about 
9-10 lines in diameter, with petals about 4 lines long. The constrictions on the calyx-tube 
are not so distinct as on Thunberg’s specimen. Es 
Thunberg describes the flowers as minute and red. His specimen gaite agrees with 
an original drawing of the typical M. brevifoliwm, Ait., at Kew. The péculiar constriction 
of the “calyx -tube is a very marked feature of both Thunherg’ s specimen and the drawing 
of the type plant. in which the corolla is represented as being & lines in diameter, with 
apparently 25-30 acute purple petals. | 
M. brevifolium, Ait., and M. sessile, Thunb., are evidently alhed species, although one 
is papillate and the other smooth. in 
The left-hand specimen, marked “a. resembles M. brevifoliwn, but the: branches 
spread more widely, the leaves are up to 4 lines long, and cylindric and covered with rounded 
papillae, and the pedicels & or oe lines long. The calyx-tube below the lobes is also 
shorter, and the petals are only 2 lines long. It is doubtless the plant alluded to by. 
Thunberg at the end of his description `` a,” by the words ` Alva est hujus varietas : foltis 
magis teretibus, subpapulosis ~ (another, with more terete subpapulose leaves, is a variety 
of this’). Lam not able to identify this specimen with any at Kew, nor is there any like 
it among those collected by Masson at the British Museum. It is quite distinct from 
M. erigeriflorum, having terete (not trigonous) leaves. More ample material is needed to 
determine whether it is a variety of M. brerifolium or a distinct species. 
Thunberg collected these two specimens on hills near the Olifants River, towards 
‘the north, in Van Rhynsdorp Division. 
Sheet 7 contains two specimens of a plant stated by Thunberg. under description §, 
to grow near the Gamtoos River, in the Humansdorp Division. It is totally different 
from the specimens on sheet a, and is an exceedingly distinct species. differing from every 
other in the genus by its very slender filiform branchlets. 
This plant is 
M. capillare, Linn. f., ` Suppl.,” p. 260 (1781); Thunb., ` Fl. Cap.,” p. 419, as to 
description # only. (This description, nor any corresponding to it, does not occur under 
Thunberg’s original description cited above under M. brerifolinm.) 
An irregularly much-branched shrublet, with very slender, woody branches and 
branchlets, the ultimate of which are filiform and scarcely a quarter of a line thick, 
thickened at the nodes in a somewhat bead-like manner, of a dark reddish-brown or 
chocolate colour (possibly purple when alive), smooth and shining on the older parts, but 
marked with mimute white dots on the younger parts, the dots being minute dried-up 
papillae. The leaves have mostly fallen: those that remain are 1-2 lines long and less 
than half a line thick, and. according to Thunberg, slightly flattened above, obtuse, 
papillate. Pedicels solitary. 3-6 lines long. The specimen is not in flower, and the few 
capsules upon it are damaged. but appear to be very shortly and broadly obconic, about 
2 lines in diameter. 'Thunberg describes the flowers as being `` minute, reddish, with 
reflexed sepals.” 
I do not match this plant with any specimen in the Kew Herbarium. The swollen 
nodes (resembling tiny oval beads) of its remarkably slender, brown branchlets distinguish 
it at once from all other species, 
