1954] 



PLANTS COLLECTED IN NYASALAND 



83 



It is not possible at present to name with certainty many specimens of this 

 important and interesting genus. This is largely due to imperfect material. The 

 flowers and fruits are produced at different times, and frequently the flowers are 

 accompanied only by very young leaves. I commend the study of this genus to 

 botanists resident in Nyasaland and elsewhere, who are willing to take the trouble 

 to collect from marked plants at different seasons, preserving flowers in spirit, 

 and trying to find by observation how much the species vary in the field. 



MUSACEAE* 4 



Ensete edule Horan. ["Bruce"], Prodr. Scitam. 41. 1862; Cheesman, Kew Bull. 

 1947: 100. 1948. 



Musa ensete J. F. Gmel. Syst. Nat. 2: 567. 1791. 



Cholo District: Cholo Mountain, common in gullies in rain-forest, herb 4-6 m. 

 high, "stem" much tapered upward, up to 40-50 cm. thick at base, dark purple, 

 leaves few, up to about 2 m. long, lamina equal at base, glaucous beneath, pan- 

 icle pendent, fruiting part 40 cm. long, sterile part 45 cm. long, flowers dirty 

 white, bracts purple-red, glaucous, deeply wrinkled transversely, fruit immature, 

 laterally compressed, 1200 m., Sept. 25, 1946, 17795. French Cameroons, French 

 Congo, Belgian Congo, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Abyssinia, Uganda, Kenya, Tan- 

 ganyika Territory, Portuguese East Africa, Nyasaland, and S. Rhodesia. 



IRIDACEAE 



Dietes prolongata (Bak.) N. E. Br. Jour. Linn. Soc. Bot. 48: 37. 1928. 



Moraea iridioides L. var. prolongata Hort. Leichtl. ex Bak. in Thiselton-Dyer, Fl. 

 Cap. 6: 26. 1896. 



Mlanje District: Mlanje Mountain; Luchenya Plateau, common in forest on 

 open river-banks, herb 50 cm. high, flowers white, only one plant found in flower, 

 1750 m., July 5, 1946, 16664*. Cholo District: Cholo Mountain, occasional in 

 rain-forest undergrowth, 1400 m., Sept. 27, 1946, 17840*. Cholo, shady banks of 

 streams, herb, sepals white, crests yellow, petals pale lavender, stigmas pale 

 lavender, 900 m., Sept. 30, 1946, 17877*. Kenya, Tanganyika Territory, Portu- 

 guese East Africa, Nyasaland, N. and S. Rhodesia, and South Africa. 



Although N.E. Brown (I.e.) stresses the whiteness of the flowers of D. pro- 

 longata — and certainly the notes of most collectors state that the flowers of this 

 species are merely white — yet the sheet at Kew of Rudatis 1441, cited by Brown 

 and with a determination-label affixed written in his own hand, says that the flow- 

 ers were white with a yellow spot. 



Moraea 55 schimperi (Hochst.) Pichi-Sermolli, Webbia 7: 349. 1950. 

 Hymenostigma schimperi Hochst. Flora 27: 24. 1844. 



Vieusseuxia schimperi Hochst. ex A. Rich. Tent. Fl. Abyss. 2: 305. 1850-1851. 

 Iris diversi folia Steud. ex A. Rich. Tent. Fl. Abyss. 2: 305. 1850-1851, nom. nud., 

 pro syn. 



Xiphion diversi folium Klatt, Linnaea 34: 572. 1865-1866, cum descr., nom. illegit. 

 Moraea diversifolia (Klatt) Bak. Jour. Linn. Soc. Bot. 16: 130. 1877; in Thiselton- 

 Dyer, Fl. Trop. Afr. 7: 339. 1898. 



Dedza District: Dedza, common and conspicuous in moist depressions in 

 Brachystegia woodland, perennial herb 30-40 cm. high, flowering after the burning 

 of the grass, flowers lavender, crests of sepals yellowish-white, 1500 m., Sept. 



"Determined by E. Milne-Redhead, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 



55 Although N. E. Brown (Jour. Linn. Soc. Bot. 48: 40, 41. 1928) adopts the earlier 

 spelling Morea Mill. (Fig. PI. 2: 159. pi. 238. 1758), yet Moraea L. (1762) is conserved 

 against Morea Mill. (1758), and the former must be used. 



