24 
NOVITATES AFRICANAE 
involucro adpressa, in folia majora transeuntia, ad 8 cm. longa; capitulum 
sessile erectum, 6-3 cm. longum, apice 7-8 cm. diam. ; involucri squamae 
8-seriatae roseae, superne argenteo-pubescentes, marginibus tomentosis, 
interiores apice breviter albo-barbatae, lineari-oblongae, floribus parum 
breviori bus, exteriores ovato-oblongae; perianthium superne pubescens, 
pilis brevibus brunneis,3 cm. longum, segmentis pilosis rubris, 1 cm. longis, 
aristis barbatis conniventibus, circa 0*2 cm. longis; stamina omnia fer- 
tilia, filamentis basi bilobis, antheris 0-5 cm. longis, glandula apicali rubi- 
cunda lanceolata obtusa, facie interiore gibbosa, 0-5 mm. longa; ovarium 
cylindricum, pilis longis brunneis vestitum; stylus 3 cm. longus teres, in 
stigma gradatim angustatus, junctione levissime flexus, stigmate filiformi, 
tenuissime canabculato, obtuso, 0-4 cm. longo. 
Cape Province: South-Western Region; Caledon Div., Hottentotshol- 
land Mountains, fl. Aug. 1924, T. P. Stokoe (Bolus Herbarium, No. 17584). 
The description was made from six living specimens in flower. Of these 
some were unbranched, and with very short stems (“acaulescent ”), looking 
like cabbages from a distance, and might well have been placed in the section 
Obvcdlata, with P. turbiniflora, R. Br., which is also heterophyllous. Others 
had one or two branches and in one specimen the stem was about 2 feet high. 
The following extracts from Mr Stokoe’s letters are instructive: “Along 
with the ‘Cabbage Proteas’ in full flower I send another from a damp 
shallow depression (not a kloof), facing east, at an altitude of 3500 ft., in 
long grass with young Leucadendrons. Only this one plant was in flower, 
but there were a few small seedlings growing under the charred relics of 
their forbears which were rather gnarled and with very little space between 
each flowering-season. I photographed the plant 1 and a burnt bush along- 
side.” In a later letter Mr Stokoe continues: “I am convinced in my own 
mind that the ‘ Cabbage Pro tea ’ becomes a bush of about 3 ft. high, densely 
foliaged and about as wide as it is high. It must be a handsome bush when 
the young woolly leaves are developing, for if it retains (as I hope to show) 
its density of foliage when it is fully developed, it must be one of the most 
bushy bushes amongst the Proteas. One must bear in mind that the whole 
area containing what I call ‘Five Beacon Ridge’ and its surroundings 
were burnt out a few years ago, and that no tree or shrub grows on ‘Five 
Beacon Ridge’ except where rocks make natural fire-guards, except a 
few bushes of P. Stokoei and a Leucadendron or two on the north end of 
the ridge: nothing older than the date of the fire exists.” 
Aristea Stokoei, L. Guthrie, subgenus Nivenia (Iridaceae-Sisyrinchieae- 
Aristeae). Fruticosa erecta, parce ramosa, 25 — 37 cm. alta, ramis ancipi- 
tibus, cicatrices foliorum delapsorum ferentibus; folia erecto-patentia di- 
sticha densa amplexicaulia lanceolata, 4 — 15 cm. longa, 0-6 cm. lata; 
flores numerosi corymbosi, pedunculo erecto, stricto vel flexuoso, ancipiti, 
1 See Fig. 2. 
