Synopsis of the Species of Lotononis and Pleiospora. 277 
biflora, Bolus, and Lebeckia leiococlada, Schlechter, are intercalated with the 
former genus. 
Although it is conceded that the calycine characters seized upon by 
most authors hold good in the majority of cases, nevertheless an examina- 
tion of Buchenroedera lotononoides, Scott Elliot, reveals every gradation 
from a Lotononis to a Buchenroedera calyx, and precisely so in Lotononis 
Woodii, Bolus, where a leaning to an Argyrolohium calyx also obtains. 
These facts lead to the conclusion that until more fruiting material is 
obtainable, and differences based upon the nature of the fruits and their 
contents are ascertained, these genera and those in the vicinity must remain 
to some extent unnatural, and be arbitrarily accepted. 
The sectionising of the genus is largely based upon the disposition of 
the flowers and incidentally often in correlation with the habit of the 
species, which are occasionall}^ annuals, perennial, decumbent or pro- 
cumbent plants, or, as in the sections, Krehsia and Aulacinthus, rigid 
shrublets. The annuals are more or less confined to the Western Eegion 
of the Cape Colony in Little Namaqualand, where this phase of vegetation 
is one of the most striking floral points in the physiognomy of that region, 
the early rains being almost instantaneously followed by a profusion of 
gaily coloured annuals, to which a striking contrast is furnished by the 
prolonged drought which follows, when almost every sign of vegetation 
disappears. 
The genus is essentially South African, about 100 of the 108 species 
constituting the genus being confined to that region, while the remainder 
extend into the Tropics via the Eastern Coast, thence into Abyssinia, 
Morocco, and Arabia, L. Leohordea, Benth., being the most widely diffused 
species from Cape Colony to Southern Persia and Baluchistan ; its claim 
to be a native of South Africa is, however, very problematical. 
The species endemic in South Africa are, as far as Herbaria 
material suggests, fairly local and well defined, but where a wider diffusion 
than usual obtains, the species is marked by a variability exceedingly 
perplexing to the systematise. The § Aidacinthus , comprising four 
species is confined to the Western Coastal Eegion of Cape Colony, 
extending from Little Namaqualand south-eastwards to the Uitenhage 
Division, the highest northerly point on the western coast of Africa being 
attained by L. angolensis, Welwitsch. The species appertaining to the 
§ Krehsia (which section, by the inclusion of several novelties, requires 
extension), are more or less coastal in their distribution, commencing from 
the Caledon Division in the south-western strip of Cape Colony, and 
gradually extend eastwards, still hugging the coast, to Natal, from whence 
they diffuse inland over the Drakensbergen to the Transvaal. L. digitata, 
Harvey, and L. Benthamiana, Diimmer, species peculiar to Little Nama- 
qualand, exhibit considerable deviation from the remaining members of this 
