148 LXX. RUBIACEE (HIERN). [Vangueria. 
tent, hairy on both sides, short. Corolla subcampanulate, more or less 
hairy outside ; throat hairy ; lobes revolute, ovate, mucronulate, glabrous 
inside, nearly equalling the tube. Anthers yellow or brown, exserted. 
Disk glabrous. Ovary 5-celled ; style robust, just exceeding the corolla, 
glabrous; stigma drum-shaped, sulcate. Fruit globose, smooth, gla- 
brous, 4-1 in. diameter, 5-seeded.—DC. Prod. iv. p. 454. V. velutina, 
Hook. Bot. Mag. t. 8014. V. tomentosa, Hochst. in I’lora, 1842, p. 238 
in not. 
Mozamb. Distr. Tette, Kiri! between Lupata and Tette, fruit edible, Kirk! 
Rovuma River, 8 miles from the coast, Kirk ! 
Occurs also in the Kalahari region of South Africa to Delagoa Bay, Natal, and 
Kafirland ; also in Madagascar (Hooker) and introduced in Seychelles. 
Burchell states that this plant was regarded by the Bachapins as bewitched and 
unlucky, and therefore unfit for firewood, and that the fruit is not edible. It is, 
however, edible in other parts of S, Africa, and is the Wild Medlar of the colonists; 
in Kafirland it is an excellent fruit tree, and the fruit surpasses our medlar. There 
is in the Kew Herbarium a specimen collected by Baines in the year 1872 from 
‘tropical South Africa.’ 
2. V. edulis, Vahl, Symb. iii. p. 36 (1794). A good-sized shrab, 
8 feet high or more, or a small tree, glabrous except under the stipules 
and the inflorescence. Branches subterete, of a dull reddish colour. 
Leaves opposite, deciduous, elliptical, usually acute at both ends, 
membranous, or at length chartaceons, rather paler beneath, delicately 
net-veined, 2-8 by 1-4 in.; lateral veins about 5-10 pairs, slender, 
not prominent; petiole 1-4 in.; stipnles caudate-acuminate from 
deltoid persistent base, about 4 in. long. Flowers greenish, appearing 
when the leaves are young, 4-} in. long, on short alternate pedicels, 10 
divaricately branched rather lax lateral and axillary puberulous panicles 
of 1-2 in. diameter; common peduncles glabrate or puberulous, 
ranging up to } in., bearing two opposite bracteoles connate at the 
base, inserted at or near the top. Calyx glabrous ; limb spreading 5 
teeth 5, ovate, subacuminate. Corolla glabrous outside, funnel-shaped; 
lobes 5, ovate, subacute. Ovary 5-celled. Stigma caly ptriform, 
shortly exserted ; style glabrous. Fruit edible, subglobose, somewhat 
4—5-sided, about 1 in. diameter, 4-5-seeded.—DC. Prodr. iv. p. 454, 
cum syn. V.venosa, Hochst. in Hb. Schimp. Abyss. ii. 653; 20 
Sonder. 
Upper Guinea. Niger, Idda, and Aboh, Barter! 
Nile Land. Abyssinia, Q. Dillon and Petit! Schimper! ii. 653; Ferret and 
Galinier (habit of the coffee-plant), Hildebrandt! Gallabat, Schweinfurth! Djur 
land, Schweinfurth ! Bongo-land, Schweinfurth ! 
Occurs also in Madagascar and other African islands, and is found (probably 
introduced) in the East Indies, 
Var. Bainesii. Leaves mostly rounded at base. Can this be V. infausta, V8™ 
B. virescens, Sond. in Harv. et Sond. Fl. Cap. iii. 14? 
South Central? South African Gold Fields, Mangwe River, Baines! 
A native also of Madagascar according to De Candolle, Prodr. iv. p. 454 and 
cultivated in the Mascarene Islands and China. 
3. VW. abyssinica, A. Rich. Fl. Abyss. i. p. 353. An unarmed 
shrub or small tree, tawny-tomentose on the young parts. Branches 
a 
