Alstonia. | LXXXIV. APOCYNACEZ (STAPF). 121 
cotyledons or slightly shorter.—Trees, often very tall, or shrubs. 
Leaves in whorls of 3-4, or more rarely opposite, frequently with 
numerous horizontal nerves; axillary stipules 0; axillary glands 
usually numerous, often very small, in a fringe or covering the 
hollowed base of the petiole, rarely both. Inflorescences terminal, 
usually whorled on the top of the branch, rarely with additional ones 
from the next leaf-whorl, mostly many-flowered and compound, 
umbelliform, corymbose or panicled. Flowers white, whitish or 
brownish, middle-sized or small. 
Species about 30, natives of India, Malaya, tropical Australia and Polynesia, 
1 in tropical Africa. 
I. A. congensis, Engl. in Engl. Jahrb. viii. 64. A large 
tree, with a tall clear trunk, quite glabrous; branches moderately 
stout, brown or blackish when dry. Leaves in whorls of 4-6, 
oblanceolate to obovate-cuneate, shortly acuminate or obtuse or 
retuse, acute or cuneate at the base, 4—7 in. long, 14-2} in. broad, 
subcoriaceous when mature, dark above, pale and more or less 
glaucous beneath ; secondary nerves straight, horizontal, prominent on 
both sides, 30-40 on each side ; petiole very short or up to } in. long. 
Panicles several from the tops of the branches, compound, loose, many- 
flowered, greyish, puberulous ; peduncle up to 1} in. long; branches 
whorled in 2-3 tiers, the lowest 14 in. long, bearing corymbosely 
arranged pseudo-umbels of 4-7 flowers; bracts small, crowded at the 
base of the pseudo-umbels ; pedicels up to 23 lin. long. Calyx scarcely 
i lin: long, minutely greyish tomentose; segments broadly-ovate, 
subacuminate. Corolla more or less minutely papillose-tomentose 
without or glabrescent in the lower part; tube slender, 4-5} lin. 
long, scantily pubescent within; limb villous at the mouth; lobes 
somewhat obliquely ovate, 14-2 lin. long. Anthers ? lin. long. Ovary 
finely greyish-tomentose except at the base; style (inclusive of the 
stigma), 4 lin. long—Durand & Schinz, Etudes FI. Congo, i. 190. 
A. scholaris, Chevalier, Géogr. Bot. Sénég. et Soudan, 207, 224, and 
in Rév. Cult. Colon. vii. (1900), 492, 493 with fig., not of R. Br. 
Upper Guinea. Senegambia: rather common from the Gambia to Portuguese 
Guinea; in the Sinedone, Adéane, Sedhiou, Yacine and Fogny districts, Chevalier ; 
Diebali, Sébire. Gambia: near Bathurst and Balantacounda, ex Chevalier. Lagos: 
Ibadan Forest, Punch, 145! Niger Protectorate: Abol:, Barter, 490! Idda, Barter, 
302! Brass, Barter,64! Cameroons: Bipinde, Zenker, 1622! 
Wile Land. British East Africa: Niamuiam; by the Diamvonu stream, 
Schweinfurth, 3260 ! 
ower Guinea. Lower Congo: Smith! Naumann, 
All the specimens which I have seen (except Punch’s) consist of barren branches, 
and it is therefore possible that they may belong to more than one species in spite of 
their great resemblance in vegetative characters. Moreover, 4. congensis was 
described from barren specimens, so that even tiie basis of the species is uncertain. 
Chevalier describes the flowers as yellowish-brown with a penetrating sweet odour ; 
they are out in Senegambia in January and February. According to Puuch, who 
collected early in December, the tree sheds neariy all its leaves before flowering. 
