1954] 



PLANTS COLLECTED IN NYASALAND 



483 



This greatly resembles in habit the S. African S, purpureus L., which how« 

 ever has more prominently ribbed glabrous achenes. 



Senecio erubescens Air. Hort. Kew. 3; 190. 1789, sensu lato. 



Mlanje District: Mlanje Mountain; Luchenya Plateau, occasional on grassland 

 paths, herb 20-40 cm. high, flowers purple, 2000 m., July 18, 1946, 16872, Nya- 

 saland, S. Rhodesia, and Angola to S. Africa. 



Senecio latifolius DC. Prodr. 6: 387. 1838. 



Zomba District: Zomba Plateau, one plant in Brachystegia woodland, herb 

 1 m. high, leaves glaucous, more or less fleshy, flowers yellow, 1500 m., June 

 6, 1946, 16284,* Nyasaland and N. Rhodesia to S. Africa,, 



Senecio karaguensis O, Hoffm. in Engh Pflanzenw. Ost=Afr 6 C: 417. 1895. 



Kota-kota District: Nchisi Mountain, sporadic in Brachystegia woodland, per° 

 ennial herb 80-100 cm, high, stem one, erect, simple, flowers yellow, 1400 m., 

 July 24, 1946, 16896; ibid», sporadic in moist gullies in Brachystegia woodland, 

 perennial herb 80-100 cm. high, stem simple, erect, leaves fleshy, flowers yel- 

 low, 1400 m., July 25, 1946, 16943; ibid., frequent in gullies in Brachystegia 

 woodland, perennial herb 80»120 cm. high, flowers yellow, 1400 m., July 27, 

 1946, 16985. Urundi, Uganda, and Tanganyika Territory, and now new to 

 Nyasaland. 



Owing to the scanty and usually fragmentary material from other parts of its 

 range, the limits of variation in S. karaguensis are still rather problematical. The 

 Nyasaland specimens run to radical leaves with a broadly elliptic lamina to about 

 15-25 cm. long and 5-10 cm. wide with long slender petioles 12-40 cm. long. S, 

 karaguensis from elsewhere seems normally to have narrower, more linear-lanceo- 

 late leaves up to about 30 x 3 cm. But the radical leaves are certainly variable, 

 even on one plant, and the variation mentioned above may be simply due to the 

 season when the plants were collected Therefore I prefer to treat S. karaguensis 

 for the present as rather an aggregate, without attempting to make varieties. I 

 strongly suspect that S, tabulicolus Bak. Kew Bull. 1898: 155 (1898) should also 

 be sunk. It is certainly very obviously related and close, but has more capitula 

 in the corymb and smaller involucres than S. karaguensis, but unfortunately the 

 type lacks radical leaves. 



Senecio wollastoni S. Moore, Jour. Linn. Soc. Bot. 38: 264. 1908. 



North Nyasa District: Nyika Plateau, common in semi-shade in montane forest, 

 annual herb 1-1.5 m. high, stem erect, simple, purple, flowers yellow, 2350 m., 

 Aug. 17, 1946, 27302. Uganda ("E. Ruwenzori") and now new to Nyasaland. 



Brass 17301 closely resembles the type of S, wollastoni, which I have ex- 

 amined in the herbarium of the British Museum (Natural History), differing only 

 in the glabrescence of the peduncles and basal phyllaries, which latter are elon- 

 gate, linear and flexuous-spreading, not short and up to about 2.5 mm. long. At 

 present I do not consider these discrepancies of much account. 



Senecio maranguensis O. Hoffm. in Engh Pflanzenw. Ost-Afr. C: 418. 1895. 

 Senecio psiadioides O. Hoffm. Bot. Jahrb. 30: 436. 1901. 

 Senecio jugicola S. Moore, Jour. Linn. Soc. Bot. 38: 264. 1908. 



Mlanje District: Mlanje Mountain; Luchenya Plateau, in forest re growths, shrub 

 2-2.5 m. high, flowers yellow, 1820 m., June 25, 1946, 16415, Uganda to Nya- 

 saland, from which it is now recorded for the first time. 



For the moment the wisest course seems to be to allow a rather wide range of 

 variation to S, maranguensis. The Nyasaland material shows leaves more or less 

 cuneate at base, petioles auriculate at base, and often some additional foliaceous 



