352 XXXIX. OLACINE/E (OLIVER). [Wtaj'topttuluw. 



in. broad; petiole 1-2 lines. Flowers in very short 3 -7-flowered axillary 

 racemes • common peduncle scarcely exceeding 1-3 lines or obsolete and 

 flowers fascicled or subsolitary ; pedicels lf-8 lines. Petals very coriaceous, 

 3-4 lines long. Fruit ellipsoidal, J in. long or a little more. Calyx persis- 

 tent unchanged. 



Upper Guinea. Fernando, Po, Mann ! Old Calabar, Thomson ! 



8. OPILIA, Roxb. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. i. 350. 



Calyx minute, 4-5-toothed, unchanged in fruit. Petals 4-5, hypogynous, 

 valvate in aestivation. Stamens as many as petals and opposite to them, free 

 or very shortly adnate to the base of the petals ; filaments filiform. Ovary 

 terete, 1 -celled, with a short thick style and obtuse stigma, surrounded by si 

 5-4-partite, free, fleshy disk ; ovule solitary, pendulous. Fruit drupaceous, 

 with a thin crustaceous pericarp. Seed albuminous ; embryo linear, terete, 

 nearly as long as the albumen (or " short in the apex of the albumen m 

 extra-African species). — Shrubs, often scrambling or subscandent, glabrous or 

 shortly pubescent-tomentose. Leaves alternate, coriaceous, entire. Racemes 

 axillary, at first strobiliform, with deciduous peltate bracts. Flowers minute, 

 pedicellate. 



A small genus of the Old World tropics. I find no sufficient ground to maintain the 

 African species as distinct from the widely -spread 0. amentacea, Koxb. 



1. O. amentacea, Roxb. PI. Coromand. ii. 31. t. 158. A loosely climb- 

 ing shrub or small tree, glabrous or the extremities shortly pubescent-toaien- 

 tose. Leaves coriaceous, oval-oblong lanceolate or elliptical, acute shortly 

 acuminate or in some forms obtuse or rarely emargiuate, cuneate or more or 

 less rounded at the base, entire, venation obscure or lateral veins sometimes 

 rather prominent beneath, l-4£ in. long, f-l| m - broad ; petiole 1-3 lines. 

 Racemes at first strobiliform, obtuse, solitary or 2-5 together from the axiU 

 of the leaves, at length growing out to 1-1^ in., ascending or spreading, to- 

 mentose puberulous or nearly glabrous. Flowers greenish, fragrant. Bracts 

 transversely oblong-rotundate, peltate, caducous. Pedicels 1 line more or 

 less. Petals recurved or revolute above on expansion. Lobes of the disk 

 fleshy. Fruit ellipsoidal, \ f in. long or subglobose in some extra- African 

 forms. Embryo nearly as long as the albumen, linear-terete. — Groutia ctlti- 

 dl/olia, Guill. et Perr. Fl. Serteg. 101. t. 22. Opilia cellidifolia, Endl. in 

 Walp. Rep. i. 377. Opilia Java nica, Miquel, Fl. Ind. Bat. i. 781. 



Upper Guinea. Senegambial Niger, Barter! 



Nile Land. Modi, White Nile, Speke and Grant ! Sennar, Kotschy ! 



Lower Guinea. Pungo Andongo, Angola, Dr. Welwitsch ! 



Var. 0. tomentella. Leaves smaller, usually obtuse ; extremities shortly tomentose. 



Mozamb. Distr. Zambesi, Dr. Kirk ! 



Also in India, the Archipelago, and N. Australia. 



Dr. Kirk sends, from Zanzibar, what may prove a distinct species of Opilia. The retfc*' 

 latiou of the leaves is very obscure, dnd the flowers, in the single inflorescence sent, are 

 collected in a somewhat umbellate raceme. 



