Volume I 
OCTOBER, 1915 
No. 3 
NOTES ON LESSERTIA WITH DESCRIPTIONS 
OF SIX NEW SPECIES AND A KEY 
By L. BOLUS 
The genus Lessertia 1 comprises about 41 species and is confined to the 
southern portion of Africa. Only 5 species extend north of the Tropic — 
viz. L. benguelensis, Baker, in Angola (also found much further south in the 
Gt. Karasberg), L. emarginata, Schinz., in Amboland, L. incana, id., in 
Gt. Namaqualand (Aus.), L. stipulates, Baker, f., in Rhodesia (Salisbury) and 
L. pauciflora, Harv. var. in the Northern Transvaal. Of the others, approxi- 
mately 11 species have been recorded from the Western Region 2 , 14 from the 
South-western, 13 from the South-eastern, 5 each from the Karoo, Upper 
and Kalahari Regions, and 3 from the Eastern Mountain Province Region. 
Its nearest African ally is Sutherlandia which differs in having much 
larger flowers with the carina considerably longer than the other petals and 
the alae comparatively small. From some species of Swainsona (chiefly 
Australian), however, where the pod is not longitudinally 2-locular by the 
intrusion of the ventral suture, it does not appear to differ at all and in my 
opinion these species must inevitably be reduced to Lessertia by some future 
worker who is able to examine both genera. 
Nine plates of Lessertia are known — viz. Jacq., Ic. Rar., t. 576 (L. diff usa) 
and Hort. Schonbr., t. 222 3 ( L . annularis), DC., Mem. Leg., t. 46 ( falcifurmis ), 
Delessert, Ic. Select., in, t. 69 ( macrostachya ) and t. 70 ( brachystachya ), Hook, 
Ex. PL, t. 84 (? linearis), Bot. Mag., t. 2064 (pulchra) and t. 6106 ( perennans ) 
and Bot. Reg., t. 970 ( fruticosa ). 
1 Established in 1802 and named in honour of Benjamin Delessert, a Frenchman who 
edited the leones Selectae (1820-1846), a work in 5 vols. containing 500 beautiful outline drawings 
of plants. 
2 The Regions used here are those given by H. Bolus, “Sketch of Floral Regions of S. Africa, 
in Science in S. Africa (1905). 
3 Regarded in the Kew Index as L. falciformis but it appears to be rather L. annularis of 
which it has the characteristic ventral bearding of the style. 
A. B. H. 
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