Some years ago a specimen of a very unusual umbelliferous plant was brought to the attention of one of us (J. F. M. C. ) by Mr. W. Marals, then of the South African National Herbarium, Pretoria. The specimen was in an advanced stage of fruiting, and while this provided excellent evidence regarding the fruit structure - a character of paramount importance in this family, the foliage was in a dried-up and shrivelled state that made analysis very difficult. For this reason a description of this material was delayed in the hope that further specimens would be brought to our notice. Last year, through the courtesy of Prof. H. Merxmüller, we received a further specimen that proved to be of the same species. This individual was in young fruit with the vegetative parts in a first class condition, Morphological study against the background of the african representatives of the family has shown this to be a new taxon, while the very unusual features of the fruit wall have left us with no alternative other than to describe the specimens as a monotypic new genus. Phlyctidocarpa flava Cannon & Theobald, genus et species nov.