384 xlii. RHAMNE.E (hemsley). [Gouania. 



branches. Leaves penninerved, ovate, acuminate acute, obtuse or slightly 

 cordate at base, 2-3 in. long, entire towards the base crenate-dentate up- 

 wards, glabrous ; petioles £-1 in. long, glabrescent. Flowers in interrupted 

 racemes terminating the lateral branches ; rachis stout as well as the pedicels, 

 clothed with a dense ferruginous tomentum. Calyx glabrous or with a few 

 scattered hairs ; lobes brown, triangular, keeled on the inside, incurved m 

 aestivation. Petals (at least in the male flowers) double the length of the 

 calyx- lobes, white, spathulate, with the margins involute enclosing the fila- 

 ments ; anthers projecting beyond their tips. Fruit glabrous ; wings 4-6 

 lines broad. 



Upper Guinea. Fernando Po and river Kongui, Mann ! (in flower). 



Mozamb. Distr. Shupanga, Br. Kirk I (in fruit). 



The species as above characterized is confined to tropical Africa, but it is closely allied to 

 G. leptostachys, DC, an Asiatic species, and G. domingensis, DC, and may eventually hay 

 to be united wiih one or both. It differs principally in its relatively much longer petals 

 with the anthers projecting beyond their tips. 



7. HELINTJS, E. Mey.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. i. 385. 



Calyx-tube broadly obconical, adnate to the ovary ; limb 5-lobed, spread- 

 ing. Petals 5, hood-shaped, inserted on the margin of the disk. Stamens 

 5, about the same length as the petals ; anthers 2-celled, dehiscing longitu- 

 dinally. Disk flat, tilling the calyx-tube. Ovary 3-celled. Styles short, 

 united at the base ; lobes spreading or erect. Fruit wholly inferior, obo- 

 vate or globose, hollowed at the top, 3-coccous ; cocci crustaceous, at length 

 separating from the 3-partite axis. Seeds plano-convex ; testa coriaceous, 

 shining ; albumen fleshy. Cotyledons large, flat ; radicle short, inferior- 

 Climbing shrubs with tendrils. Branches angular, pubescent when young. 

 Leaves alternate, petiolate, entire; stipules small, deciduous. Peduncles 

 axillary, slender, sometimes changing into simple circinate tendrils. Flowers 

 umbellate, on slender pedicels. 



Besides the African species which are endemic, there is one Indian. 



Flowers glabrous. Fruit smooth \. H. ovatus. 



Flowers densely hirsute. Fruit more or less tubercula'te 2. IT. mystacwv*- 



1. H. ovatus, E. Mcy. ; Harv. et Sond. Fl. Gap. i. 479. A climbing 

 glaucous shrub with simple spirally twisted tendrils. Branches slender, an- 

 gular, divaricate, pubescent when voung. Leaves petiolate, varying from 

 ovate-oblong to orbicular, 1-2 in. in diani., obtuse or emarginate with a very 

 tine mucro, subcordate or obtuse at the base, entire, glabrous above, when 

 young furnished with a few scattered silky hairs beneath, at length quite gla- 

 brous. Stipules linear-subulate, deciduous. Flowers glabrous, in supple 

 axillary or terminal pedunculate umbels about the length of the leaves ; pedicels 

 }-± in. long. Fruit glabrous, smooth, obovate or nearly globular, \ in- lu 

 diani. with a slight central depression.— Willemetia scandens, Eckl. et Zeyn. 

 Herb. 996. 



Lower Guinea. In thickets, not uncommon, 1000-2400 ft., Golungo Alto, &■ 

 Welmtsch ! 



