1954] 



PLANTS COLL ECTED'IN NYASALAND 



445 



Mlanje District: Mlanje Mountain; Luchenya Plateau, local on wet shaded 

 grass slopes, perennial herb 80-100 cm. high, flowers white, 2140 m., June 27, 

 1946, 16460. North Nyasa District: Nyika Plateau, frequent in open grasslands, 

 perennial herb 30-40 cm. high, roots tuberous, flowers white, bracts white above, 

 green below, purplish with age, 2300 m., Aug. 16, 1946, 17245. Nyasaland and 

 S. Rhodesia to Cape Province. 



Sanicula elata Ham. ex. Don, Prodr. Fl. Nepal. 183. 1825; Shan & Const. Univ. 

 Calif. Publ. Bot. 25 l : 47. 1951. 

 Sanicula europaea L. var. capensis Cham. & Schlecht. Linnaea 1: 352. 1826. 

 Sanicula europaea L. var. elata (Ham. ex Don) Boissieu, Bull. Soc. Bot. Fr. S3: 421. 

 1906; Wolff, Pflanzenreich 61 (4 128 ): 63, 278. 1913. 



Zomba District: Zomba Plateau, massed on a shaded rock in a rain-forest 

 stream, herb about 80 cm. high, flowers greenish, 1500 m., June 7, 1946, 16310. 

 Cholo District: Cholo, occasional in rain-forest gullies, perennial herb 60-80 cm. 

 high, flowers white, 1100 m., Sept. 29, 1946, 17872. Widespread on the mountains 

 of tropical Africa, also in South Africa, Madagascar, and Asia including the 

 Himalayas. 



Shan and Constance in their recent revision of the gems Sanicula (I.e.) sep- 

 arate S. elata from S. europaea because of the few (1-4) staminate flowers in each 

 of the ultimate umbels of the former, S. europaea having 12-18 staminate flowers 

 per ultimate umbel; they also state that the highly developed dichasial branching 

 of S. elata is entirely unlike that of 5. europaea. 



S. elata has up till now been usually treated as a variety of S. europaea, but 

 I think that there is much to be said for separating the two specifically. 



It should be noticed that if S. elata is treated as a variety of S. europaea then 

 the correct varietal name is var. capensis Cham. & Schlecht., and not var. elata 

 (Ham. ex Don) Boissieu. 



Shan and Constance give the distribution of true S. europaea as northwestern 

 Europe to the Mediterranean region and eastward to Asia Minor, Persia, the Cau- 

 casus, and western Siberia; it does not occur anywhere in tropical or South Africa. 



Heteromorpha trifoliata (Wendl.) Eckl. & Zeyh. Enum. PI. Afr. Austr. 342. 1836. 

 Bupleurum trifoliatum Wendl. in Bartl. & Wendl. Beitr. Bot. 2: 13. 1825. 

 Heteromorpha arborescens sensu Hiern in Oliv. Fl. Trop. Afr. 3: 10. 1877; Wolff, 



Pflanzenreich 43 (4 228 ): 33. 1910, exci. var. y & auct. al., omn. p.p., quoad pi. afr. 



trop.; non Heteromorpha arborescens (Thunb.) Cham. & Schlecht. 



Zomba District: Zomba Plateau, common on precipitous rocky slopes, tree 

 3-5 m. high and 6-8 cm. in diameter at breast-height, bark laminate, broken into 

 large irregular flakes, leaves aromatic, flowers greenish, fru*t not seen, 1430 m., 

 May 29, 1946, 16078. Mlanje District: Mlanje Mountain; Luchenya Plateau, com- 

 mon in brushy forest regrowths and among rocks in grassland, tree 2-4 m. high, 

 2100 m., June 27, 1946, 16483. Kota-kota District: Nchisi Mountain, occasional 

 in gullies in Bracbystegia woodland, shrub 1-2 m. high, plant aromatic, plant 

 stems simple, usually solitary, leaves greyish beneath, flowers yellowish-green, 

 1400 m., July 25, 1946, 16926. North Nyasa District: Nyika Plateau, uncommon 

 in secondary growths of montane forest, tree or shrub to 8 m. high, 2340 m., Aug. 

 20, 1946, 17342. East and South Africa. 



Brass 16926 is an aberrant form with puberulous stems and leaves, possibly 

 worthy of separation when the limits of this polymorphic species are better 

 known. 



For a note on the reasons, with which I am inclined to agree, for using the 

 name H. trifoliata rather than H. arborescens for this plant, see Bum Davy, Fl. 

 Transv. 2: 5.19 (1932). 



