Studies in the Ericoideae ( Ericaceae ) . VIII . New species in Erica , section Pseuderemia , from southern Africa

Three new species are described in the genus Erica L.: E abbottii E.G.H Oliver, endemic to the South Coast of Natal and neighbouring Transkei. E. swaziensis E.G.H Oliver, a Swaziland endemic, and E. ingeana E.G.H Oliver which is confined to the high mountains in the eastern Little Karoo of the Cape Province.

Erica abbottii was recently collected by A. Abbott, a farmer in the Port Edward area, who is keenly interested in natural history and conservation.He is involved in a detailed survey of the species in the nearby Umtamvuna Nature Reserve and in the process has made some very interesting records, including several new species.When trying to identify this material we found that a more detailed study of the species in Section Pseuderemia was required in order to establish the taxonomic status of his collection and also its affinities.In this regard we are most grateful to him for his fine collections and his notes and photographs of E. abbottii.
The species is the only truly prostrate one in this section and as such is unique among those species occurring in the summer rainfall area of southern Africa.It forms prostrate, lax plants with long branches straggling among the low grasses in moist seepage areas or alongside streams.This character and the white corolla, pale yellow anthers, stellate hairs on the ovary and 4 -6 ovules per locule serve to characterize E. abbottii.
The lax habit is not so well developed in E. swaziensis which has bright pink, very differently shaped flowers.

It approaches E. holtii from the Drakensberg and eastern
Transvaal in which the flowers are also white, but that species forms low compact many-stemmed shrublets in which the corolla is globose-urceolate w ith spreading lobes and 10-18 ovules per locule.The single collection of the latter species from the high Drakensberg of Natal, Esterhuysen 20234, is anomalous.The occurrence of stel late hairs on the ovary in E. abbottii is most unusual in the genus, but is shared w ith the E. cooperi/baurii complex which occurs further inland in the Transkei northwards to central Natal.However, this complex forms stout, woody, erect shrubs with stiff, dendroid hairs all over the plants and there are on average 20 ovules per locule.It is allied to the group of species described here in a number of characters.It differs from the rather lax, pinkflowered E. ingeana, which also has spreading corolla lobes, by the lobes being much wider than long and by the glabrous corolla, white glands on the medium-length hairs and the lack of glands on the long hairs.

INTRODUCTION
After a long period of neglect, some attention has recently been given to epiphytic Cyanophyceae associated with mangroves with respect to their abundance and importance within this particular habitat (Berjak et al. 1977;Dor 1984;Lambert et al. 1989).
The Cyanophyceae from southern African mangroves were studied in detail by Lambert et al. (1989).This report constitutes an important contribution to our knowledge of the ecology and taxonomy of the Cyanophyceae in that region.The northern limit of sampling by Lambert et al. (1989) occur in the south-western Cape Province.E. solandra Andr. is confined to the Outeniqua Mountains.The complex of E. sphaerocephala Wendl.ex Benth./£.maderi Guth.& Bol./£.oxysepala Guth.& Bol. is common in the Ceres to Clanwilliam Districts and exhibits much var iation over both geographical as well as altitudinal ranges.E. cemua C.V. Montin and E. pudens H.A. Baker are both western Cape species found from Ceres northwards as far as Namaqualand (E.pudens).The other four species are very localized: E. claxisepala Guth.& Bol. in the southern Cape Peninsula; E. acockii Compton, known only from near Bellville and now extinct; E. orculiflora Dulfer from the mountains just south of Ceres; and the very distinct E. greyii Guth.& Bol., recorded only as a single collec tion from an unspecified locality in the Cold Bokkeveld in 1860.

TYPE
Branches thin and wiry with slight infrafoliar ridges, internodes 10 mm long or less, up to 60 mm on flowering branches, pilose and with scattered long glandtipped hairs, the glands white in voung stages.Leaves 4-nate suberect and subimbricate.2 .0-2 .5 mm long, narrowly ovate, pubescent all over, ciliate with long glandtipped hairs; petiole very short, 0.2 mm long, pubescent.Flowers in heads of 12 at ends of main and lateral branches; pedicel 2 mm long, dark red.pubescent and w ith scattered long gland-tipped hairs: bract subapproximate.2 mm long, lanceolate, pubescent and with a few scattered somewhat longer gland-tipped hairs and longer simple or fork-tipped hairs, red at base, sulcate and green in upper threequarters; bracteoles 2. like the bract.Calyx 4-partite.oblong or lanceolate, acute.1.7-2.0mm long, half as long as the corolla, pubescent and with slightly longer scattered gland-tipped hairs, ciliate with long simple and fork-tipped hairs, red with apical green sulcate portion.Corolla 4-lobed.bright pink, tube narrowly ovoid.3 mm long, glabrous, lobes erect to spreading, broadly elliptic.0.8 mm long, papillate outside and inside, papillate-crenulate.Stamens 8. free, included, about three-quarters the length of the corolla tube; filaments linear, slightly curved at apex; anthers 0.6 mm long, sub-basally attached, glabrous, light brown, aristate.awns as long as the pore, slightly joined to the filament, with serrated edges, pore two thirds the length of the theca: pollen in tetrads.Ovary 4-locular with 15 ovules per locule. 1 mm long, broadly obovoid 8-lobed.covered with short stiff hairs; style 1.5 mm long, just shorter than corolla tube, glabrous; stigma simple.Fruit a dehiscent capsule with septa free to the base; seeds ovoid, pale yellow, with numerous small reticulate cells.distinguished by its lax habit, the long intemodes of the flowering branches, glabrous pink corolla with large spreading lobes, partly decurrent anthers and by the lack of glands on the longest hairs, but white glands on the medium-length hairs.
Transvaal escarpment to the high Drakensberg of Natal, from where it has been collected only once, Esterhuysen 20234, in 1952.The distribution of E. holtii has recently been extended further north to the Wolkberg, Venter 10859a.It is, however, a species with white, pubescent flowers of ovoid-urceolate shape with very small broadly rounded corolla lobes on plants which are multi-stemmed from a very woody base, the main branches being rather short.Verdoom (1954), when discussing the species of Erica from the Transvaal, mentioned the occurrence of E. holtii in Swaziland, presumably based on the old Nicholson col lection in PRE.She noted, however, that the Swaziland material possessed longer and more urceolate flowers than the type.
was in the Kosi Estuary which borders Mozambique (Figure IB).Inhacalsland issituated ± 180 km to the north, on the east coast of southern Africa, within the Indo-West-P&cific biogeographic zone of the degree squares 2532DD and 2632BB (see Edwards & Leistner 1971) (Figure 1A, B).It is of interest because of the well-zoned mangrove swamps, a feature not apparent in the swamps to the south (Berjak et al. 1977).The island is situated in the south of Mozambique, forming part of the barrier between the Indian Ocean and Maputo Bay (Figure 1).The largest stands of mangroves are located at the head of the northern and the southern bays (Figure 1C) (Macnae & Kalk 1969).The mangrove vegetation on Inhaca Island is mainly composed of the following: Avicennia marina (Forssk.)Vierh., Bruguiera gymnorrhiza (L.) Lam., Ceriops lagal (Perr.)C.B. Robinson.Lumnitzera racemosa Willd.and Rhizophora mucronata Lam.Ceriops lagal occupies the central areas of all mangrove swamps on the island and macroscopic growth of algae on its trunks is generally very scarce.Avicennia marina is a dominant member of the mangrove community.The pneumatophores very often