8S ix. capparidacejE (olivek). [Courbonia. 



1. C. decumbens, A. Brongn. in Bull. Soc. Bot. France, vii. 901. A 

 glabrous, glaucous or glaucescent shrub, with long, slender, leafy branches. 

 Leaves at length coriaceous, ovate or elliptical, obtuse or rather acute, roucro- 

 nulate, base sometimes subcordate, obscurely 3-5-nerved below, l-lj in - 

 long, about | in (£-1 in.) broad ; petiole 2-4 lines. Flowers solitary, axil- 

 lary, about f in. diam. ; pedicels rather shorter than the leaves. Calyx 3- 

 or rarely 2-partite ; tube very short, campanulate, many times shorter than 

 the apiculate or acute rather thin lobes. Petals 0. Disk-margin prominent, 

 sinuate-toothed. Ovary fusiform, 2-celled (or exceptionally 3-celled), at least 

 in the middle by the meeting or actual cohesion of the placentary plates. 

 Fruit globose, with a coriaceous pericarp, 1-few-seeded, |~1 in. diam., on a 

 gynophore of about 1 in. Seeds 6-10 lines long, 4-6 lines broad, consisting 

 of two large fleshy cotyledons, convex on the back, wavy on the inner face, 

 with a deeply-included radicle ; testa papery. — Physanthemum glaucum, 

 Klotzsch in Peters' Mossamb. Bot. 167. t. 29. 



Nile Land. Madi, Speke and Grant ! Abyssinia, Courbon. 

 Mozamb. Distr. Zambesia, Brs. Peters, Kirk, and Metier ! 



2. C. virgata, A. Brongn. in Bull. Soc. Bot. France, vii. 901. Perfectly 

 glabrous and glaucous with virgate leafy branches. Leaves ascending, 

 narrow- or linear-oval or lanceolate, acute, coriaceous, f -14, in. long, 2-5 lines 

 broad, on very short petioles of 1 line or shorter. Flowers numerous, each 

 in the axil of a leaf which often equals or exceeds the pedicel. Calyx-tube 

 about one-sixth to one-fourth the length of the acute lobes, which appear to 

 be normally 3 in number, though they vary with 4. Disk-margin toothed or 

 lobed. Petals 0. Ovary fusiform, nearly or quite 2-celled ; stigma sessile. 

 Fruit not seen. — Saheria virgata, Fenzl (Schweinf. Fl. iEthiop. 74.) 



Upper Guinea. Senegambia, Heudelot ! 



Nile Land. Sennar, Kotschy ! Cienkowski ; Abyssinia, Schimper ; Nubia, D'Jrnaud, 

 Sabatier. 



6. CADABA, Forsk. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. i. 108. 



Sepals 4, free, in two series ; the outer pair enclosing the inner. Petals 4 

 or 0, inserted on the torus, unguiculate. Stamens 4 or 5 (in the tropical 

 species) ; filaments adnate more or less to the gynophore. Appendix spring- 

 ing from the base of the gynophore and often nearly at right angles to it, 

 tubular, linguiform or ligulate, shorter or longer than the sepals. Ovary 

 upon a long gynophore, 1-celled or 2-celled owing to the cohesion of the pla- 

 centary plates ; stigma sessile or subsessile. Ovules indefinite. Fruit cylin- 

 drical terete or subtorulose or ellipsoidal, sometimes dehiscing in two valves. 

 —Shrubs unarmed or the desert species sometimes spinescent. Leaves 

 simple, entire, glandular scabrid or glabrous. Flowers in terminal corymbs 

 or racemes or axillary. — Strcemia, Vahl, Symb. i. 19. 



A small genus, chiefly confined to Africa, Arabia, India, Madagascar, and the islands of 

 the Indian Ocean ; one species reaches Australia. A Cape species, C. (Schepperia) juncea, 

 is nearly or quite aphyllous. 



Petals 0. Stamens 5, adnate to- base of gynophore. Appendix ligu- 

 late. 



