238 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



or spreading brownish subulate glabrous bracts at intervals J-J inch 

 long, which are more crowded near the flower-head, gradually merging 

 into the lanceolate or narrowly oblong acute or acuminate penni- 

 nerved J-f inch long glabrous scales, which constitute the involucre ; 

 capitula when expanded 1J-3 inches across, ray-florets J.j-i inch 

 broad, pure white above, pale rose or ruby-red beneath, obtusely 

 3-toothed at their apices. 



Disirihution. Coast Region. Cape Div. : Villett ! Bowie ! on the 

 Table Mountain slopes near Stinkwater, Diimmer ! Devil's Peak, 

 1000 feet, Bolus ! 1000 feet, Nov. 1908, Diimmer, 2036 ! Simon's Bay 

 (1852), Milne ! Wright ! Stellenbosch Div. : Hottentot's Holland 

 Mountains, 2000-3000 feet, Oct. Mund, 66 ! Caledon Div. : Nieuwe 

 Kloof, Houw Hoek Mountains, March 16, 181 5, Burchell, 8053 ! 

 between Donker Hoek and Houw Hoek Mountains, March 10, 

 1815, Burchell, 8022 ! on a mountain near Genadendal, April 12, 1811, 

 Burchell, 8639 ! Mountains of Baviaan's Kloof near Genadendal, 

 Feb. 15, 1815, Burchell, 7625 ! on hills near Palmiet River, 1000 

 feet, Dec. 1877, Bolus, 4148 ! Caledon Baths, Ecklon and Zeyher ! 

 Pappe ! 



G. asplenifolia is undoubtedly unique among Gerberas, combining 

 the superficies of a fern vegetatively with that of a Composite. So 

 extraordinarily similar are the leaves of this plant to those of a simple- 

 leaved Asplenium that the tyro, not noticing the method of their 

 unfolding, is often beguiled by flowerless specimens and mistakes 

 them for ferns. The species has a circumscribed distribution in the 

 colony, and is confined to its south-western strip, including the Caledon, 

 Stellenbosch, and Cape Districts, and is moreover extremely local. 

 In the latter district, on the Cape Peninsula, it favours the slopes of 

 Devil's Peak above Cape Town at elevations of about 1000 feet above 

 sea-level, revelling in the crannies of outcrops of granite or Table 

 Mountain sandstone, but flowering rarely, though floriferousness is 

 occasionally induced by the effects of bush fires. 



It is of rare occurrence on the slopes of Table Mountain facing 

 the city, but is local on the western, above Camp's Bay at 500 feet, 

 where, associated with the Restiaceous and Proteaceous element, it 

 affords a typically Cape plant-association. On the eastern slopes it 

 occurs at various points along the mountain range, and extends 

 beyond to the Simon's Town Mountains. 



Despite the extreme interest of the plant, and the elegance and 

 beauty of the flower-heads which occasionally measure over 3 inches 

 across, and are pure white above, pale rose or ruby-red below, the 

 species does not appear to have found its way into EngHsh cultivation, 

 and this is the more deplorable as it would assuredly afford interesting 

 material for hybridization experiments with such species as G. Jamesonii 

 or G. aurantiaca. 



It is extremely probable that the plant was introduced in the 

 living state to the Continent by the eariier Dutch travellers, for it is 

 figured in Buxbaum's Centuria Plantarum as early as 1728, and 



