162 
M. scabrum, Thunb., ` F!. Cap.,” p. 420. 
Three sheets. marked 1. 2. and 3, stated to grow on hills near Capetown. 
Sheet 1 contains one very poor specimen of a species that is not determinable, but 
is not M. scabrum, Linn. , 
Sheets 2 and 3 both contain only specimens of M. bracteatum, Ait., “ Hort. Kew.,” 
ed. 1, Vol. II, p. 185 (1789). 
M. secundum, Thunb.. `` Mus. Nat. Acad. U psal. Auet.,’ Bart 1 pese (1827), name only, 
no description. 
This is not quoted in Thunb. ` Fl. Cap.” The specimen is identical with those of 
Burke No. 468 and is M. articulatum, Thunb. (which see). ; 
M. serratum, Thunb., ~ Fl. Cap.,” p. 427. 
One sheet, containing one flowerless branch. It is possibly M. tenuifolium, Linn., 
but certainly not M. serratuwm, Linn. No locality is given for it. 
M. sessile, Thunb., ` Fl. Cap.,” p. 419. 
One specimen in fruit, collected in the Karroo between the Olifants River and the 
Bokkeveld Mountains. The original place of publication is— 
M. sessile, Thunb.. in ` Nov. Act. Acad. Leop.-Car. Ephem.,” Vol. VIII, Append., 
p. 14 (1791). 
Evidently a woody shrub or shrublet. The type consists of a straight terete main 
branch about 1} line thick at the base, giving off numerous very short opposite leaf-bearing 
and flowering bre ts 2-5 lines long, ine luding the flowers, and three spreading alternate 
prane hes 1 1! inch long (but are broken at the ends and have been longer) and more than 
! line thick ; era 's 2-4 lines long; bark brown. Leaves 1-2 closely placed pairs to 
each branchlet, 1-13 line long and about as broad, probably larger when alive, half-globose, 
rounded at the ie x, flat or slightly concave (from shrinkage 7) above, very convex on 
the back, glabrous, smooth, apparently pellucid-dotted. Pedicel terminal and solitary 
on the short lateral branchlets, 1 line long, not bracteate (as Sonder wrongly states), 
vradually passing into the obconic calyx- tube, which is 1} line long. Calyx 5-lobed ; 
lobes 1-13 line long, ovate, obtuse. Flowers red, ex Thunberg, but the specimen is in 
unripe fruit. Capsule 2-2} lines in diameter, with 5 acute ridges on the flattish top, 
purplish, ee Thunberg. 
| have not been able to match this with any specimen at Kew. 
Sonder has placed M. cymbiforme, Haw., ~*~ Obs.,” p. 264, as a synonym of M. sessile: 
Thunb., but that species is a totally different plant, with much larger leaves than those 
of M. sessile, Thunb. 
M. spathulatum, Thunb., in ~ Nov. Act. Acad. Leop.-Car. Ephem.,” Vol. VII, Append., 
p. 5 (1791), not of Willdenow. 
This species is omitted from all other books, including Thunberg s “ Flora Capensis,”” 
and no specimen so named exists in his Herbarium. M. spathulatum, Willd., which seems 
to have hitherto been mistaken for Thunberg’s plant by Willdenow, De Candolle, Sondei, 
and Berger (who wrongly quotes the name as ` JM. spathulifolium ”) *). is an annual, and 
is the same as M. criniflorum, Linn. f., which grows near Capetown, whilst M. spathulatum 
of Thunberg is described as a perennial, from the Roggeveld region, and therefore not 
at all likely to be the same species. The following is a translation of Thunberg’s description 
of M. spathulatum. . 
A stemless perennial. Root thick, fleshy, with fibres, divided above into several 
little stems. Leaves about 6. radical, approximate, erect, alternately opposite, about 
as long as a finger-nail (” unguicularia ” ”). connate (at the base), ovate, obtuse, with a 
“ n ma Fe 
