Merremia.] | XC. CONVOLVULACEE (BAKER AND RENDLE). 103 
papery when dry, up to 5 in. long by7 broad, palmatisect with 5 more or 
less elliptic lobes, with bluntish mucronulate apex and tapering base, 
the median the largest reaching 5 in. long by nearly half as broad, the 
outermost the smallest more or less deeply and unequally bilobed ; veins 
on the under leaf-face winged and conspicuous, sometimes obsoletely 
puberulous ; petiole stout, narrowly winged, nearly as long as the blade. 
Peduncle short, 14 in. or less, few-flowered; bracts deciduous, mem- 
branous, bluntly ovate, about 3 lin. long; pedicels stoutly clavate and 
broadly winged, about 1 in. long. Calyx broadly cup-shaped, glabrous, 
$+1 in. long, and as broad ; sepals broadly obovate to orbicular, apex 
rounded, coriaceous with broad thin subpellucid margins. Corolla 
white, broadly funnel-shaped, about 24 in. long and nearly as broad, 
glabrous, except for a slight hairiness on the upper part of the badly- 
defined mid-petaline areas. Filaments dilated and hairy at the base, up 
to 8 lin. long ; anthers over 2 lin. long, contorted. Fruit not seen. 
Upper Guinea. Gold Coast: Odumassu. Johnson, 155! Krobo Plains, 
Johnson, 517! Togo: near Lome, Warnecke, 273! 
3. M. kentrocaulos, Rendle. Perennial, glabrous. Stems twining» 
generally muriculate, sometimes very obscurely, as are also the petioles 
and peduncles. Leaves membranous, glabrous, 3-6 in. in diam., 
palmately cut nearly to the base into 5 to 7 lanceolate to oblong- 
lanceolate, acuminate or acute to subacute segments; veins prominent 
beneath, impressed above ; petiole half as long to about as long as the 
blade. Peduncle long or short ; flowers few or several] in a lax cyme ; 
pedicels often 1 in. or more long; bracts minute, deciduous. Sepals 
oblong, 3-14 in. long, obtuse to acute, enlarged in the fruit, becoming 
6 lin, long, spreading and rigid. Corolla sulphur-yellow, red at the base, 
funnel-shaped, 2-24 in. long; lobes bluntly triangular ; midpetaline 
area somewhat conspicuously lined, but not very sharply limited. 
Capsule narrowly ellipsoid, 6-8 lin. long, 2-chambered ; pericarp 
thin, splitting lengthwise into 4 valves, and bearing the persistent 
withered style on the septum. Seeds black, glabrous, between 3 and 
4 lin, long.—Operculina kentrocaulos, Hallier f. in Engl. Jahrb. xviii. 
119; Hiern in Cat. Afr. Pl. Welw. i.730. Ipomea tuberosa, Choisy in 
DC. Prodr. ix. 362, partly (as to syn. Steud.), and A. Rich. Tent. Fi. 
Abyss.ii. 67, not of Linn. Convolvulus kentrocaulos, Steud. in Pl. Schimp. 
it. Abyss. ii. 800. 
Upper Guinea. Northern Nigeria: Nupe, Barter, 930 
Wile Land. Gallabat: Matamma, Schweinfurth, 2137! Abyssinia : by the 
River Tacazze, Schimper, 800! Shoa, Quartin-Dillon § Petit, 641 Mittu: 
Ngama, Schweinfurth, 2803! Bongo; Sabbi, Schweinfurth, 2670! Moru: 
Neangara, Petherick ! 
Lower Guinea. Angola: Golungo Alto, near Menha-Lula, Welwitsch, 6167 ! 
by the River Congo and Sobato Mussengue, Welwitsch, 6168! Pungo Andongo! 
Calundo, Welwitsch, 6166! Mechow, 157. Malange, Gossweiler, 1106 B! 
Var. pinnatifida, N. E. Br. Lobes of leaves deeply pinnatifid. Bracts usually 
resembling the leaves, but smaller. Flowers creamy-white ; corolla-tube brow nish- 
crimson, 
