The South African Convolvulaceae.

The first important contribution to our knowledge of the South African Convol­ vulaceae was made by Thunberg who described or mentioned about 12 species. Choisy in DC., Prodr. 9 (1845) added many species collected by Burchell, Ecklon, Zeyher and Drêge. H. Hallier (fil.) revised the family, beginning with his paper on the “ natural system” of the Convolvulaceae in Engl. Bot. Jb. 16: 453-591 (1893), and treated the African Convolvulaceae in a series of papers, the most important of which are in Engl. Bot. Jb. 18: 81-160 (1893), 28: 28-54 (1899) and in Bull. Herb. Boiss. 6: 529548 (1898), 7: 41-55 (1899). Hallier’s system has been generally followed with only minor changes. His works, together with publications by Engler in Engl. Bot. Jb. 10:53-56 (1888), by Schinz in Verh. bot. Ver. Brandenb. 30: 270-276 (1888), by Baker in Kew Bull. 1894: 67-74 (1894) and by Rendle in Jl. Bot. 39: 12-22, 55-64 (1901), 40: 189-191 (1902), were the main sources of reference for the treatments of the Convolvulaceae in the Flora Capensis 4, 2 (1904) by Baker and Wright and in the Flora of Tropical Africa 4, 2 (1905-1906) by Baker and Rendle. Since these publications only few papers treating species from Southern Africa have been added. Pilger continued Hallier’s papers on Convolvulaceae Africanae in Engl. Bot. Jb. 41: 293297 (1908), 45: 218-222 (1910) and 48: 348-352 (1912); N. E. Brown published on the collections made by the Lugards in Ngamiland (Kew Bull. 1909, Convolvulaceae p. 122-125). These publications are important for the area under discussion because they deal with species some of which were described or have since been recorded from the Union. A monograph of the genus Cuscuta by Yuncker appeared in 1936.