ANNALS 
MEDEDELINGEN 
' OF THE VAN HET 
J’ransvaal ^Museum. 
Vol. III. MAY, 1912. No. 3. 
A FIRST CHECKLIST OF THE FLOWERING PLANTS AND 
FERNS OF THE TRANSVAAL AND SWAZILAND, 
By Joseph Burtt-Davy, F.L.S., F.R.S.S.Sf., F.R.G.S., 
Government Botanist, Department of Agriculture, 
AND 
Mrs. Reno Pott-Leendertz, 
Curator of Botany, Transvaal Museum. 
INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 
This first attempt at a published check-list of Transvaal plants does not 
profess to be either complete or critical, and we hope that its publication will 
induce readers to bring to our notice records which have been overlooked or 
species not yet recorded. Of the latter we are conscious that there are many, 
but these await the opportunity for critical study in comparison with 
authentically named specimens, most of which are to be found only in the larger 
European herbaria, more particularly those of Kew, Berlin, and Zurich. 
Though we have tried to catalogue all the literature, there are a few publications 
to which we have not had access, and the Rev. F. A. Rogers has kindly called 
attention to some which had been accidentally overlooked. 
A census of the list gives approximately 3240 species, included in 920 
genera and 157 families. 
In its preparation I have mainly followed the Englerian arrangement of 
families and genera, as recorded by De Dalla Torre and Harms in their Genera 
Siphonogamarum. For the convenience of those more accustomed to the 
arrangement of Bentham and Hooker as followed in the Flora Capensis, a 
synopsis of the families is given on pp. 123-126, and an index of genera and 
families on pp. 127-172. 
It has been considered wise to follow recent writers on the South African 
flora in their critical treatment of genera in the larger families, even if not in 
accord with De Dalla Torre and Harms ; e.g. Mr. N. E. Brown in the Asclepia- 
dacese and Labiatse, Mr. R. A. Rolfe in the Selaginese (here included in the 
Scrophulariaceae in accordance with the Englerian system), Dr. Stapf in the 
Graminese, and Professor H. H. W. Pearson in the Thymelseacese. To enable 
a comparison to be made between the arrangement of this list and that of the 
Genera Siphonogamarum, and for means of reference, the generic and family 
numbers of the latter are here given in parentheses after the names. 
Although inconsistent with the systematic arrangement of families and 
genera, the species are arranged alphabetically, partly from lack of information 
