36 Transactions of the Boyal Society of South Africa. 
lum terminale, conico-ovoideum, mitram referens. Flos stipitatus in 
corpusculo inclusus, demum latere corpusculi petalis exiens. Sepala 5, 
papillosa, tria majora apice membranaceo-ampliata ; petala numerosa, 
linearia; styli 4, filiformes. 
A very remarkable plant. Each branch terminates in a leaf-body, 
formed by one pair of leaves, pressed with their upper faces against each 
other and sheathed completely in the papery remains of last year's leaf- 
body. In midsummer the sheath splits at the side and the flower-bud 
appears, showing its white, slightly pink petals. Sepals 5, three of them 
enlarged by a membranous apical edge. Flower and fruit draw food and 
water from the fleshy corpusculum that surrounds them, until the body 
finally becomes exhausted and shrivels up. When the next rain comes 
the bud alongside of the fruit develops a short stalk and a new 
corpusculum, which repeats the process the following season. 
The method of protecting flower and fruit against the effects of 
drought is the same as we find in all the species of the section Sphceroidea, 
but owing to the production of a new internode every year, an inch or two 
long, a shrub is produced, the branches of which, owing to their brown 
corky bark, appear to be dry, but are fresh in the centre, and carry the 
terminal fleshy corpuscula at their ends like knobs on a stick. 
In the sandy deserts about ten miles east of Port Nolloth in Little 
Namaqualand. Flowering in January. Collected by Mr. Garwood Alston. 
Marloth, No. 4690. (Fig. 4.) 
EUPHOEBIACE^. 
Euphorbia geegaeia, spec. nov. (Sect. Tirucalli.) 
Frutex ramosissimus ramis rigidis, cinereo-glaucis, nudis. Cymulae 
dichotomse, 6-10, brevissime stipitatse, ramorum apicem versus subcapi- 
tat^e. Involucrum conico-campanulatum, tomentosum, basi foliolis 
2 parvis, ovatis suffultum, lobis ovato-rotundatis, fimbriatis, glandulis 
parvis, stipitatis, orbiculatis, latere inferiore plicatis. Capsula stipitata, 
depresso-sphgerica, 8-10 costata, tomentosa. Semina globoso-prismatica, 
laevia. 
The shrub is generally about 2 m. high, occasionally 3 m., and of 
the same diam., mostly truncate at the top. The main branches are 
3-5 cm. thick, the terminal twigs of the thickness of a pencil. Cyathium 
small, 4-5 mm. in diam. and 2-3 mm. long. Glands brown. Fruit-stalk 
10-15 mm. long, capsule large, 15 mm. in diam., tomentose, yellow when 
ripe. Seeds prismatic on the inner side, with a deep furrow on the central 
ridge, smooth, white, 8 mm. long and 6 mm. in diam. 
