1954] 



PLANTS COLLECTED IN NYASALAND 



505 



For a discussion of Glossostelma and for further synonymy of G> spathulatum 

 see Bullock (I.e.). 



Calotropis procera (Ait.) Ait. f Hort. Kew. ed. 2. 2: 78. 1811; N. E. Br. in 

 Thiselton-Dyer, Fl. Trop. Afr. 4 1 : 294. 1902. 



Asclepias procera Ait. Hort. Kew. 1: 305. 1789; Willd. Sp. PI. 1: 1263. 1798. 



Chikwawa District: Chikwawa, common on open alluvial plains, shrub 2-3 m. 

 high, fleshy, grey-green, branches erect, flowers purple, fruit usually inflated, 

 200 m., Oct. 2, 1946, 17908. Widespread in the northern half of tropical Africa, 

 extending southward to Nyasaland, and though Fgypt and Arabia to India; also, 

 no doubt introduced, in the West Indies and Central and South America. 



Woodson (Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 17: 48. 1930) made the new combination 

 Calotropis syriaca (S. G. Gmel.) Woodson (Apocynum syriacum S. G. Gmel. Reise 

 Russ. 2: 198, 257. 1774), alleging this to be the right name for Calotropis procera. 

 Incautiously, I followed Woodson in adopting C. syriaca in Check-Lists For. 

 Trees & Shrubs Brit. Emp. 5 (Tanganyika Territory °art 2): 64 (1949). Mr. J. E. 

 Dandy of the British Museum (Natural History) has kindly looked at the German 

 edition of Gmelin's Reise, which is not at Kew, and informs me that Apocynum 

 syriacum S. G. Gmel. is a nomen nudum. I suspect that Woodson made Apocynum 

 syriacum a Calotropis on the strength of its inexplicable reduction in the Index 

 Kewensis. What Jackson's evidence for this was I do not know. It is possible, 

 though there is no direct evidence for it, that Gmel in intended to refer to Apocy- 

 num syriacum Clus. Rar. PI. Hist. 5: Ixxxii (1601). Clusius' plate certainly 

 points to Calotropis, and Boissier agrees that it is C. procera. Linnaeus (Sp 

 PI. 214. 1753) wrongly referred Clusius' plant to an American species of As- 

 clepias, A. syriaca L. 



The name Calotropis procera should, pending further evidence, stand. 



Pergularia barbata (Klotzsch) N. E. Br. ex Brenan, comb. nov. 



Daemia barbata Klotzsch in Peters, Reise Mossamb. Bot. 274. 1861; N. E. Brown in 

 Thiselton-Dyer, Fl. Trop. Afr. 4 1 : 388. 1903. 



Chikwawa District: Lower Mwanza River, trailing on a sandy beach, vine, 

 flowers greenish-white, 180 m., Oct. 6, 1946, 18019. Portuguese East Africa 

 and Nyasaland. 



Ceropegia sp. 



Zomba District: Zomba, trailing in pine plantations, flowers blackish-purple, 

 1200 m., May 26, 1946, Mrs. C. W. Benson 16033A.* 



This seems near C. leucotaenia K. Schum. Bot. Jahrb. 17: 151 (1893), which 

 my colleague Mr. A. A. Bullock kindly tells me is a synonym of C. abyssinica 

 Decne. in DC. Prodr. 8: 644 (1844) (see Bullock, Kew Bull. 1952: 424. 1952); but 

 the lobes of the corolla in 16033 are considerably longer in relation to the tube. 

 The specimen however is a meagre one, and more and better material, with flow- 

 ers in alcohol, is wanted. 



LOGANIACEAE 



Lachnopylis cf. polyantha (Gilg) C. A. Sm. Kew Bull. 1930: 18. 1930. 



Nuxia polyantha Gilg, Bot. Jahrb. 30: 376. 1901; Bak. in Thiselton-Dyer, Fl. Trop. 

 Afr. 4 l : 513. 1903. 



North Nyasa District: Nyika Plateau, edges of montane forest of escarpment, 

 tree 5-6 m. high, flowers cream, fruit last season's, 2200 m., Aug. 17, 1946, 

 17295. 



Probably correct, but better specimens are wanted for certain determination. 

 L. polyantha has been previously known only from Tanganyika Territory. 



