186 CXVI, LAURINE (STAPF), [ Hypodaphnis. 
pubescent. Leaves ovate- to obovate-elliptic, acutely acuminate, or 
almost caudate, very shortly acute or almost obtuse at the base, 5-10 in. 
long, 24-3 in. broad, thinly coriaceous, densely fulvo-pubescent on the 
nerves below when unfolding, soon quite glabrous, drying brown, paler 
below; midrib narrow, channelled above, very prominent below; lateral 
nerves 4-5 on each side, distant, very obliquely ascending, indistinctly 
looping, slightly prominent below; veins transverse, parallel, faintly 
raised above, very fine; petiole terete, with a faint groove above, 
#-1} in. long. Panicle subcorymbose, sometimes made up of several 
panicles springing from the axils of the uppermost leaves, 14—3 in. long, 
2-24 in. wide, many-flowered, finely rusty-pubescent all over; lowest 
branches undivided for 1 in. or more, then like the others frequently 
divided with short branchlets and pedicels, 3-1 lin. long. Perianth 
finely rusty or fulvous-pubescent to velvety on both sides ; segments. 
slightly unequal, the outer oblong, 2 lin. long, the inner ovate-oblong 
and slightly shorter, all spreading in the open flower. Stamens of the 
male 1 lin. long; filaments finely and minutely pubescent along the 
sides, slightly longer than the anthers. Style ? to almost 1 lin. long, 
and like the flat top of the ovary fulvo-pubescent.—Ocotea Zenker, 
Engl. Jahrb. xxvi. 385, t. 9, fig. A. 
Upper Guinea. Cameroons: in primeval forests, Bipinde, Zenker, 851! 
3033 ! 30334! Kiango, Zenker, 1630! Johann-Albrechtshéhe, Staudt, 961. 
4, OCOTEA, Aubl.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. iii. 157. 
Flowers usually dicecious, or hermaphrodite. Perianth herbaceous, 
with or without a receptacle or tube, 6- or 8-lobed or partite ; lobes or 
segments equal, usually deciduous. Hermaphrodite: stamens in 3 or 
4 whorls, the outer 3 fertile, the fourth (if present) staminodial ; 
anthers 4-valved; valves in superposed pairs, of the 2 outer whorls 
introrse, of the third extrorse or subextrorse, very rarely introrse ; fila- 
ments very short or 0, or longer than the anthers, of the third whorl 
with a sessile, very rarely stipitate, gland at each side of the base; 
staminodes, if present, slender. Ovary ovoid, ellipsoid or subglobose, 
usually glabrous, longer or shorter than the style. Male: as in the 
hermaphrodite flowers, but ovary sterile, stalk-like or quite sup- 
pressed. Female: as in the hermaphrodite flowers, but stamens 
rudimentary, barren. Fruit baccate, ellipsoid or globose, seated on or 
in an enlarged cupular receptacle, which is either truncate or 6-toothed: 
or 6-lobed from the persistent perianth-lobes.—Trees or shrubs. Leaves: 
alternate, membranous or coriaceous, glabrous or hairy. Flowers small, 
in cymes, arranged in axillary or subterminal panicles. 
Species about 200, mostly in Tropical America, a few in South Africa and the: 
Mascarenes, 
The genus has been defined here in the sense of Mez’s monograph of the American 
Laurinee (Jahrb. Kénigl. Bot. Gart. Berlin, vy. 219), and probably includes several 
types which might well be taken as generically distinct. 
