In connexion with A. W. Exell's treatment of tlie genus Combretum for "Prodromus of a Flora of South-West Africa" (in press)+) I have carried out an investigation of the cuticular patterns of the fifteen species and two subspecies therein recognised. Cuticular Studies afford a very convenient method of examining the characters of the leaf epidermis and its outgrowths (trichomes), since, whilst the epidermis itself is not able to be removed without some difficulty and often then only fragmentarily, the cuticle can be removed in total with considerable speed and ease, even in extremely old herbarium specimens. It is not proposed to give details of the methods of the Isolation and mounting of cuticles used in this study, as these will be described at a later date in a more comprehensive account, but in essential the technique involves the dissolution of the cellular tissue by means of a macerating solution and the staining and mounting of the isolated cuticles. These cuticular preparations show all the normal epidermal characters (such as the form of the epidermal cells, of the stomata and of the trichomes) since these are imprinted on to the cuticle during development, and in addition the cuticles themselves often provide some further diagnostic characters - The genus Combretum , in common with some other genera, shows two characters of particular diagnostic importance which may be briefly outlined here.