326 OXXXIV. SCITAMINEH (BAKER). [Phrynium. 
Inflorescence a simple spike produced 1-2 from each branch a short 
distance below the leaf-blade; bract cylindrical, glabrous, 4 in. long; 
peduncle 2-flowered, protruding beyond the tip of the bract, one flower 
sessile, the other pedicellate. Flower and fruit unknown. 
Upper Guinea. Cameroons: River Cameroon, Mann, 2142! 
16. P. ramosissimum, Benth. in Hook. Niger Fl. 532. Stems 
branched, 6—12 ft. long. Leaf oblong-cuspidate, moderately firm, 
glabrous, 6-10 in. long, 3-4 in. broad, rounded at the base; petiole 
sheathing the branch nearly to the top; cylindrical apical callus under 
$ in. long. Spikes 1-3, shortly pedunculate, 4—6 in. long, ascending or 
recurved ; bracts oblong-navicular, 1-14 in. long; peduncles 2-flowered, 
as long as the bract. Ovary densely villous. Sepals lanceolate, 4 in. 
long. Petals twice as long as the calyx. Staminodia not longer than 
the petals. Fruit globose, 3-seeded, 4 in. diam.—Horan. Prodr. 11. 
Upper Guinea. Senegambia, Heudelot, 729! Sierra Leone: Scarcies River ; 
near Kambia, Scott-Elliot, 4196! and near Tawia, Scott-Elliot, 4473B! on the way 
to Port Lokko, Scott-Elliot, 5877! Niger Territory: Nupe, Barter, 1542 ‘Fernando 
Po, Mann, 100! 1174! Barter, 1544! Vogel, 165! 178! Cameroons: River 
Cameroon, Mann, 2141! 
Lower Guinea. Angola: Bembe, and common in all the interior, Monteiro ! 
17. P. sulphureum, Baker. Stem erect, simple, bearing in its 
upper part three leaves with long sheathing petioles (lowest 6 in. long) 
and a cylindrical apical callus } in. long; blade oblong, unequal-sided, 
cuspidate, 5-6 in. long, 2-23 in. broad, moderately firm, glabrous, 
unequally rounded at the base. Inflorescence a small crowded erect 
panicle springing from the hairy sheath of the topmost leaf a short 
distance below the blade; bracts cylindrical, pubescent, 4 in. long. 
Peduncle 2-flowered, protruded from the tip of the bract; one flower 
sessile, the other pedicellate. Flowers light yellow. Fruit unknown. 
Lower Guinea. Gaboon: Sierra del Crystal, Mann, 1643 ! 
11, CALATHEA, G. F. Meyer; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. iii. 653. 
Sepals 3, free, equal, imbricate. Corolla-tube shorter or longer 
than the calyx ; lobes 3, spreading, oblong. Staminodia united in a 
tube at the base; lip broad, not crested inside; staminiferous lobe 
narrow or broad, with the 1-celled anther adnate to one side. Ovary 
3-celled ; cells 1-ovuled ; style adnate at the base to the staminal tube, 
hooked at the lip; stigma 2-valved. Fruit ovoid or 3-lobed; pericarp 
usually thin. Seeds usually 3, erect, ovoid, with a reflexed aril and 
horseshoe-shaped embryo.—Spikes terminal on a long stem in the 
centre of a rosette of leaves, or on a short leafless stem arising from the 
rhizome. Leaves often variegated. Flowers usually several to each 
primary bract. 
Species 50 or more, all the others Tropical American. 
