220 Transactions of the Royal Society of Sotdh Africa. 
that he finds the variability of the leaf apex very great, but extremes 
sometimes occur on the same plant, the vigorous young shoots having 
long denticulate leaf apex, while the slower growth has the more 
obtuse, entire apex ; also that the variation in cell width to some extent 
corresponds, the long and slightly falcate leaves having usually longer 
cells. These observations agree entirely with my own experience. In 
any tuft of the plant placed under the microscope one generally finds a 
certain number of leaves with short, wide points, not falcate, while other 
branches have longly acuminate, falcate-decurved leaves ; in the former the 
cells are very wide and short, giving the leaf a strikingly reticulate appear- 
ance ; in the other form the cells are more chlorophyllose, longer and 
narrower, and much more difficult to restore when moistened ; in fact the 
apparent narrowness of the cells is to some extent at least due to their 
failure to expand under moistening. I believe that a certain number, at 
least, of the species of Vesicularia described from S. Africa are based 
solely on the above variations of characters, and actually should be placed 
under F. sphaerocarpa. It is at any rate widely distributed over the African 
continent and the East African Archipelago. 
SeM ATOPH YLL AC E AE . 
Ehaphidostegium . 
Some of the African species of this genus, belonging to the § Cupressinopsis, 
offer great difficulties, which I have not at present been able to clear up. 
The difficulty is enhanced by the fact that C. Mueller's description of 
-R. Dregei does not at all agree in some particulars with specimens under that 
name in our collections, although some of them at least were presumably 
determined by C. Mueller himself. Thus C. Mueller describes the leaves as 
very narrowly lanceolate, laying great stress on this character, whereas 
Eehmann's No. 411b, as well as Breutel's specimens at Kew, show them 
decidedly broadly lanceolate. He also describes the perichaetial leaves as 
"longissime subfiliformi-acuminata," while in Eehmann's plant they are 
acute, but rigidly, by no means longly or narrowly acuminate. It is possible 
that the plants are not correctly determined. They appear to agree well with 
C. Mueller's description of B. dentigerum, which I have not been able to see. 
R. kraJcakammae (C. M.), of which I have examined original specimens 
m Hampe's Herbarium, I am inclined to think is only a rather small 
form of B. Dregei. In any case B. tapeinophyllum (C. M.) is, I have no 
doubt, identical with J^. Dregei. All these plants have the upper cells more 
or less papillose at back. 
* B. Gueinzii (C. M.) is another perplexing species ; the cuspidate branch 
tips do not appear to afford a constant character. I am inclined to think 
the perichaetial bracts give the best guide ; they are wide and very shortly 
pointed, even subobtuse, and very closely denticulate, in the upper part ; I 
