Palisota. | CXLIII. COMMELINACEE (CLARKE). 31 
7. P. ambigua, C. B. Clarke in DC. Monogr. Phan. iii. 130, t. 5,. 
fig. 3. Young parts shaggy with fulvous hair. Stem 1-2 ft. long, 
with long internodes. Upper leaves apparently 3-5 in a whorl, 8 by 2 
in., obovate-lanceolate, when mature nearly glabrate except at the 
densely fulvous-hairy margins. Peduncle 1-6 in. long; inflorescence 
2—6 by }—} in., loose, sparingly hairy, 50-150-flowered; bracts hardly 
¢ in. long; pedicels 0-4, in. long, articulated at the base; buds ,4,—,), 
in. in diam., puberulous, many soon falling. Ovary glabrous. Fruit 
ellipsoid, } by 4 in., with 2 (rarely 3) seeds in each anticous cell, 1-seed 
in the posticous cell. Seeds superposed, of a metallic blue colour, smooth, 
the top and bottom seeds pyramidal, the intermediate short cylindric, 
—Durand & Schinz, Consp. Fl. Afr. v. 421; Schoenl.in Engl. & Prantl, 
Pflanzenfam. ii. iv. 62, fig. 31, F—H; Durand & Schinz, Etudes FI. 
Congo, i. 268; Durand & Wild.in Bull. Soc. Bot. Belg. xxxvi. 87, xxxvii. 
127; Hua in Bull. Soc. Bot. France, xli. p. lv., and in Bull. Mus. Hist. 
Nat. Par. i. 119. Commelina ambigua, Beauv. Fl. Owar. i. 26, t. 15. 
Upper Guinea. Lagos! Musin, Millen,201! Niger Territory: Old Calabar, 
Robb! Cameroons: Rio del Rey, Johnston, 1! 
Lower Guinea. Gaboon: Sierra del Crystal, Mann! River Gaboon, Mann! 
1031! Buettner, 506! Lower Congo: Bingila, Dupuis! Mouth of the Congo 
Smith, 63! French Congo: Kakomocka, Lecomte. 
South Central. Congo Free State: Lunda; Mukenje, Pogge ! 
> 
8. P. micrantha, K. Schum. (MS. ?) in Zenker n. 956. Inflores- 
cence 1 by } in. Buds scarcely 45 in. in diam. Otherwise as P. 
ambigua. 
Upper Guinea. Cameroons: Bipinde, Zenker, 956! 
The buds are less than half the size of those of P. ambigua at the same stage of 
development ; still it may be doubted if this is other than a small state of that species. 
The stem and leaves are exactly the same as in it. 
9. P. thyrsiflora, Benth. in Hook. Niger Fl. 544, excl. syn. 
Young parts shaggy with fulvous or grey hairs. Stems 3-15 ft. 
long. Upper leaves apparently opposite or whorled at the distant 
nodes, attaining 15 by 4 in., lanceolate-obovate or oblong-elliptic, 
shortly acuminate at the tip, long-cuneate at the base, margins persis- 
tently and densely hairy, midrib in the mature leaves hairy or glabrous 
beneath. Panicles often 10 by 2 in., loose, not rarely 2-4 from the 
uppermost whorl of leaves; bracts }—-} in. long, lanceolate. Peduncles 
of the cymes, mostly simple, often $—1 in. long, slender, with a number 
of adjacent knots at the top, which are the scars whence the pedicels 
have early fallen; pedicels 0—;1, in. long. Corolla white. Stamens of 
the genus. Ovary glabrous. Berry } in. in diam. or rather more, sub- 
globose or ellipsoid, erect on the arm of the panicle, obtuse, blue, with 
often 10-16 seeds. Seeds trapezoid, not much flattened, nearly smooth. 
—C. B. Clarke in DC. Monogr. Phan. iii. 133, t. 5, fig. 4; Durand & 
Schinz, Consp. Fl. Afr. v. 422; Hua in Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. Par. i. 
118,and in Bull. Soc. Bot. France, xli. p. lv. P. Tholoni, Hua in Bull. Soc, 
