112 
FLOBA OF ADEN . 
and punctate seeds. Reseda pruinosa is evidently an annual, with gene- 
rally trifid leaves ; it has shorter spikes, larger flowers, and seeds nearly 
as large again as those of R. amblyocarpa , of a dark olive colour, and 
with an almost perfectly smooth testa. Both, however, are pruinose. 
The seeds of R. pruinosa are also sometimes slightly punctate, and R. 
Aucheri, Boiss., which ranks only as a variety of R. pruinosa , has often 
leaves as entire as those of R. amblyocarpa. In Resedacece the duration 
of the stock is probably an uncertain character, subject to the influence 
of climate, and especially the amount of moisture.” 
Oliver unites R. amblyocarpa with R. pruinosa (FI. top. Afr. I, 103). 
“ Notwithstanding Dr. Anderson's remarks," he says, “ I do not think R. 
amblyocarpa can be maintained as specifically distinct from R. pruinosa. 
There is no difference as to the seeds between the Abyssinian and N. W. 
Indian forms, though in the Aden plant, which was specially under 
Dr. Anderson's notice, they are very small, black, and rough with minute 
points. The leaves of our only Abyssinian specimen are entire, though 
Fresenius describes them as mostly 3-fid. Most of the leaves are trifid 
in the ordinary state of R. pruinosa/ 3 
Cooke (in FI. Bombay Presid. I, 49) describes the Sind specimens of 
Reseda pruinosa as having the lower leaves linear-lanceolate, the upper 
deeply 3 — 5 -divided and the segments narrow-linear. The seeds are 
yellowish-white, smooth, subglobose. 
Krause considers the differences pointed out by Anderson as sufficient 
to separate R . amblyocarpa from R. pruinosa. 
It is evident from the above statements that the Aden specimen can- 
not be distinguished from R . pruinosa by anything like a constant mor- 
phological character, except by its black and punctate seeds. As to the 
colour of the seeds of R. pruinosa the authors do not agree. Anderson 
calls it dark olive, Krause olive-green, and Cooke yellowish- white. 
2 . ©cliradenus Delile. 
Branched glabrous herbs ; branches slender, twiggy. Leaves small, 
linear, on the younger branches only, solitary or fascicled. 
Flowers small, spicate or racemose, often polygamous. Calyx 5-fid. 
Corolla 0. Disk unilateral. Stamens 10 — 20, inserted within the disk. 
Ovary sessile, ovoid, closed at the top, 3-cuspidate, placentas 3 ; ovules 
many. 
Fruit a many-seeded berry. 
Species 2. 
Distribution : — Spain, Syria, Egypt, Arabia, Sind. 
