114 XIII. BIXINE/E (OLIVER). [Bixa. 



linear anthers, folded back ivpon themselves, dehiscing only in the middle of 

 each lobe). Ovary 1-celled, with 2 or rarely 3 multiovulate placentas. Style 

 slender; stigma minutely 2-lobed. Capsule coriaceous, compressed-ovoid or 

 subcordate, rarely 3-gonous, rough with long, stiff bristles, separating into 

 2 (or 3) valves, bearing the seeds covered with a red pulp. — A shrub, with 

 alternate, ovate, somewhat palminerved leaves and terminal panicles or pani- 

 culate racemes of large rose or white flowers. 



A genus of 1, or perhaps 2 species, native in tropical America. The following is cul- 

 tivated or naturalized very widely between the tropics of the Old World. The red pulpy 

 covering of the seeds is used as a dye, under the name of Aruatto. 



•1. B. Orellana, Linn. ; DO. Prod. i. 259. A small tree of about 10 

 (5-15) ft., the young shoots and inflorescence rusty-puberulous. Leaves ovate 

 or subcordate-ovate, acuminate or acute, entire, rarely with 1 or 2 unequal 

 lateral lobes, palminerved at the base, usually 4-6 in. long, 2|-3£ in. broad, 

 glabrous or glabrescent. Flowers l|-2 in. diam. Fruit 1^-2 in. long, I4 

 in. broad, rather pointed. 



Upper Guinea. About towns on the Niger, Barter ! (not much used by the natives) ; 

 Fernando Po and Prince's Island, Mann ! 



Lower Guinea. Angola, occurring as though indigenous in woods and thickets, 

 Br. WelwiUch ! 



Dr. Welwitsch found growing sporadically in elevated woods in the district of Golungo 

 Alto in Angola, a small-leaved form, the leaves sometimes lobed, ovate, acuminate, 2-4 in- 

 long, and 1-2 in. broad. 



3. ONCOBA, Forsk. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. i. 125. 



(Heptaca, Lour. ; Ventenatia, P. de Beaut. ; Xylotheca, Hochst. ; Chlanis, Klotztch ; 



Mayna, Aubl.) 



Flowers polygamous. Sepals 3 or 4, free or cohering below, imbricate. 

 Petals 5-10 or more, rarely fewer, often narrowed toward the base and ex- 

 ceeding the sepals, imbricate. Stamens indefinite, free ; anthers linear, rarely 

 shortly oblong, dehiscing longitudinally, with or without a terminal point or 

 awn. Ovary 1-celled, with 2-10 multiovulate placentas. Style simple; 

 stigma various, either denticulate or divided into as many linear or subulate 

 or capitate, ascending or radiate lobes as placentas, or peltate and depressed 

 in the centre. Fruit dehiscent or indehiscent, smooth, ridged, furrowed or 

 echinate, coriaceous or shell-like, l-celled, many-seeded or in some sniall- 

 flowered species, few- or 1-seeded. Seeds with'a horny testa ; embryo witn 

 leafy cotyledons. — Trees or shrubs, sometimes spinose. Leaves alternate, 

 usually penninerved, coriaceous or membranous. Flowers terminal or axillary. 

 solitary, fascicled or racemose, white reddish -white or yellowish ; in severa ^ 

 species large and showy. 



A genus of about 20 or 22 described species, confined to the tropical and subtropiw 

 parts of Africa and America. The American species arc small-flowered, with echinate frm •» 

 and have hitherto been held as generically distinct from Oncoba. Some of the new spe cl 

 here described unite the extremes. (See Oliver in Journ. Linn. Soc. ix. 172.) 

 Flowers terminal or axillary, solitary or in fascicles, not racemose. 

 Flowers 1-4 in. diam. Fruit various. 



Leaves pubescent, entire or undulate. Petioles short, rarely 

 more than 1 in. Flowere usually solitary or two or three 

 together. 



