Commelina. | CXLIII, COMMELINACEE# (CLARKE). 45 
Abyssinia: near Schumdalake, 4000 ft., Schimper, 380! Somaliland, Mrs, Lort- 
Phillips! Donaldson Smith! British East Africa: Nyika country near Mombasa, 
Wakefield ! Witu, Thomas, 2038 ! 
Lower Guinea. Angola: Pungo Andongo; in damp meadows by the River 
Cuanza, near Nbilla, Welwitsch, 6634! Damaraland, Een ! 
Mozamb. Dist. Zanzibar, Hildebrandt, 1053! Kirk! German East Africa : 
Tanga, Holst, 2078! Portuguese East Africa : Zambesi Delta ; mouth of the River 
Kongoni, Kirk ! Lower Zambesi ; between Lupata and Tete, Kirk! British Central 
Africa: Rhodesia ; Zambesi Valley, at Shesheke, Holub! Ngamiland: Kwebe, near 
Lake Ngami, Lugard, 1386! Mrs. Lugard, 147! Matabeleland, Elliott ! 
Also in Arabia, Socotra, Mascarenia, Southern India. 
In this species, as in C. benghalensis, stolons or basal almost leafless branches 
carry abnormal, often apetalous, flowers, and produce capsules usually abnormal, often 
1-seeded. 
22. C. africana, Linn. Sp. Pl. ed. i. 41, ed. ii. 60. Nearly glabrous. 
Stems 1—3 ft. long, rambling, much divided, almost woody at the very 
base, with thick roots. Leaves 3 by } in., or much smaller, oblong, nearly 
sessile, usually obtuse at the base, often with rusty hairs at the mouth 
of the sheath. Spathes scattered, on peduncles exserted 4-3 in., 
varying in length (in one example) from }—2}in., simply folded, ovate, 
commonly triangular at the top, sometimes acuminate or rarely caudate- 
attenuate, glabrous or nearly so with white margins. Petals yellow. 
Filaments often } in. long. Ovary 5-ovuled. Capsule nearly always 
1-seeded, i.e., the dorsal cell falls off apparently quite indehiscent, while 
the four ovules in the two ventral cells (after swelling somewhat) remain 
infertile ; occasionally the upper ovule in each ventral cell produces a 
perfect cylindric-ellipsoid reticulated seed.—Gertn. Fruct. i. 50, t.15, 
fig. 1; Lam. Encyel. ii. 67, Ill. t. 35; Schmidel, Ic. i. 113, t. 30; Red. 
Lil. t. 207; Gawler in Bot. Mag. t. 1431; C. B. Clarke in DC. Monogr. 
Phan. iii. 164, and in Dyer, Fl. Cap. vii. 9 ; Durand & Schinz, Conspect. 
Fl. Afr.v. 422 ; K. Schum. in Engl. Pfl.Ost-Afr.C. 135 ; Rendle in Journ.. 
Linn. Soc, xxx. 429, and in Trans. Linn. Soc. ser. 2, Bot.iv. 52; Huain 
Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. Par. i. 119. (C. angolensis, C. B. Clarke in DC. 
Monogr. Phan. iii. 167 ; Engl. Hochgebirgsfl. Trop. Afr. 155; Durand & 
Schinz, Conspect. Fl. Afr. v. 423; Rendle in Cat. Afr. Pl. Welw. ii. 77. 
C. involuerosa, C. B. Clarke in DC. Monogr. Phan. iii. 165 partly. 
C. Elliotii, C. B. Clarke & Rendle in Journ. Linn. Soc. xxx. 98. 
Hedwigia africana, Medicus in Roem. & Usteri, Mag. x. 124. 
Upper Guinea. Sierra Leone: between Kahreni and Port Lokko, Scott- 
Elliot, 5749! 
Wile Land. | Habab, 6000 ft., Hildebrandt, 368! Eritrea: Saganeiti, 6800— 
7000 ft., Schweinfurth & Riva, 1701! Abyssinia: Samen; Shoata, Schimper, 590! 
Shoa, Petit! British East Africa : Niamniam : by the River Nabambisso, Schwein- 
furth, 3739! and Makporru Hill, Schweinfurth, 3797! British East Africa: 
Leikipia ; Njoro Larabwal, Gregory ! Machakos, 5000-6000 ft., Scott-Elliot, 6388 ! 
Lower Guinea. French Congo: Bramaya, Paroisse, 196. Angola: Huilla, 
3500-5800 ft. ; near Lopollo, Welwitsch, 6581! Monino, Welwitsch, 6583! Morro 
de Lopollo, Welwitsch, 6593! Pungo Andongo; Sobato Cabanga, Welwitsch, 6626 ! 
German South-west Africa : Upingtonia ; Ovambate, Schinz, 28! 
