332 CXXVIII. GNETACE® (Pearson). [Gnetum. 
1}-2 in. long ; internode 23 lin. long ; cupule ? lin. long ; envelope 
2-leaved, $ lin. long; anthers 2, hardly exserted from the envelope 
during flowering. Female spikes lateral or terminal, shortly ped- 
unculate, usually 3-1 in. long, with 6 nodes, each bearing a whorl 
of 3 perfect female florets. Ripe seed not seen—Pearson in Ann. 
Bot. xxvi. 603-620, t. lx. fig. 1, ¢ & d (6 spike). 
Upper Guinea. Cameroons: near Abo, Yaunde, Zenker, 522; Johann- 
Albrechtshihe, Staudt, 543 ! and without precise locality, Zenker in Herb. Bolus ! 
3. WELWITSCHIA, Hook. f.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. iii. 418- 
Dicecious. Male (pseudohermaphrodite) floret : Envelope of 2 im- 
bricating whorls ; outer whorl of two laterally placed free boat-shaped 
keeled scales ; inner of 2 median broadly ovate or subrotund keel-less 
scales, connate at the base ; stamens 6, exserted ; filaments connate 
in a very short tube at the base; anthers somewhat 3-lobed when 
mature, 3-celled, dehiscing by 3 slits from the summit; pollen 
ellipsoid, slightly coherent in irregular masses; ovule solitary, 
terminal, erect, orthotropous, imperfect, with the single integument 
produced into a tubular micropyle, sharply bent near the middle, 
expanding at the tip in an exserted glandular-papillose stigmatiform 
disc. Female flower: Utricle of 2 laterally placed connate leaves, 
bottle-shaped, contracted at the throat, compressed from back 
to front, with 2 lateral membranous wing-like expansions from the 
midribs : ovule solitary, terminal, erect, orthotropous, perfect, with 
the single integument produced into a straight micropylar tube 
through the mouth of the utricle ; micropylar tube irregularly labiate 
or fimbriate, but not expanded at the apex. Seed flattened, closely 
invested by the winged utricle ; endosperm starchy, wedge-shaped 
below, retuse above, supporting the withered nucellar cap (per?- 
sperm); radicle erect; cotyledons 2, rarely 3, narrow-lineaz ; 
suspensor long, coiled, persistent.—Plant body (hypocotyl) woody, 
covered by thick corrugated cork, sometimes intricately fused 
with other individuals, when injured exuding a copious gummy 
secretion which congeals in alcohol, broadly obconic or turbinate, 
concave on the top, more or less circular or elliptic in horizontal 
section, rising }~-1 ft. above the ground, 1-3 ft. in diam. at the top. 
Kpicotyl reduced to 2 leaf-bearing grooves and floriferous cushions 
forming a raiséd rim round the top of the hypocoty] interrupted at 
the ends of the longer diameter and a depressed and early arrested 
stem apex, at length buried beneath 2 coalescent corky expansions 
(“lateral cones ’’) overlying the concave summit of the hypocotyl, 
developed from buds in the axils of the cotyledons. Tap-root greatly 
elongated, unbranched above, at length very slender, branched and 
brittle. Leaves 2, rarely 3, each inserted in an epicotylar groove 
