FLORA OF ADEN. 
120 
gland ular-pilose. Leaves inches long ; J — | inch broad, obovate- 
spathulate or oblong and gradually attenuate into a short petiole, obtuse 
and often mucronulate, or acute and glabrous, or subglandular pilose. 
Cymes dichotomous, much-branched, divaricate ; pedicels glandular- 
pilose, the ultimate ones capillary, erect, £ inch long ; bracts foliaceous, 
much shorter than the pedicels. Calyx subglabrous or with scattered 
glandular-pilose hairs, J inch long, campanulate, 5-lobed, lobes long 
acute, as long as the tube, with submembranous margin. Petals three- 
nerved, glabrous, white or lilac, J inch long ; claw gradually broadened 
into a truncate erose or emarginate limb, acute at the base. Ovary 
8-ovulate. 
Capsule subbifid at the apex, shortly stipitate, as long as the calyx, 
few-seeded. Seeds black, tuberculate ; radicle elongate. 
Flowers : — End of November and March (Schweinf.). 
Fruits : — March (Schweinf.). 
Locality : — Above the coal depot of the Messag. Marit., very com- 
mon in the plain of Maala, on dry rocky ground and on gravel of water- 
courses together with Cassia adenensis Benth., etc. (Schweinf.) | plain 
of Maala (Defl.) ; at the foot of the Shum Shum Range (Hildebrandt) ; 
without locality (Birdw.). 
Distribution : — Yemen, Socotra, Somaliland. 
Note : — Balfour describes a glabrous form from Aden under the 
varietal name : 
Var, diffusa Balf. f. Bot. Socotra, p. 20. 
“ Herba inflorescentia diffusa ramosa ramulis ultimis capillaribus 
floribusque minoribus.” 
“The Socotran plant \_Gypsojohila Montana Balf. fii.] appears to be 
identical with a hitherto undescribed one first found at Aden by 
Thomson in 1872, and since sent home from that locality by several 
collectors. We obtained it there in abundance. In the Aden plant 
variations in habit and clothing of the same character as in the Socotran 
specimens are observed, though not so strongly marked. But there is a 
further variation observable in the inflorescences and flowers of the 
glabrous form as found at Aden. The former become exceedingly 
diffuse, and the pedicels are very short and delicate; the latter are 
greatly reduced in size, often less than half those of the Socotran plants. 
In fact the inflorescence assumes more the appearance of an Arenaria. 
I can And, however, no sufficient character separating the forms as species, 
though a varietal name may be assigned to the Aden plant.” Botany 
■of Socotra, p. 20. 
This variety seems to be endemic in Aden. 
