Buforrestia. | CXLIII, COMMELINACEH (CLARKE). ‘ge 
Lower Guinea. Princes Island, Mann! Lower Congo: Bingila, Dupuis ! 
Angola: Cazengo; by streams in the Coffee region of Mount Muxaulo, Welwitsch, 
6607 ! 
B, minor, K. Schum., differs by having the leaves with very few hairs or glabrate 
. except at the month of the sheaths. The lower axillary shoots sometimes perforate 
the leaf-sheath, as in the type. 
Mozamb. Dist. German East Africa: Usambara; Nguelo, near Nderema 
(? Ngerema), on the Handei Mountains, Holst, 2280a. 
8. FORRESTIA, A. Rich.; Benth. et Hook. f, Gen. Pl. iii. 850. 
Sepals 3, small, concave, hooded. Stamens 6 fertile ; filaments. 
with beaded hairs. Ovary 3-celled, with 2-1 ovules in each cell. 
Capsule subglobose; otherwise as Buforrestia.—Flowers in small 
clusters on very short axillary peduncles, which generally perforate. 
the base of the leaf-sheaths. 
Species 8, viz. 6 in South-east Asia, and the 2 following: 
Spikes subglobose ; stems quadrangular . < . L. #. tenuis. 
Spikes linear-oblong ; stems terete . . : . 2. F. africana, 
1. FP. tenuis, Benth. in Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. iii. 851. Nearly 
glabrous, except at the ciliate mouths of the leaf-sheaths. Stems 1-2 ft. 
high (J/ann) ; portions seen 9 in. long, subacutely quadrangular, with 
3 subterminal leaves and 4 leafless lower nodes 2} in. apart. Leaves 3} 
by 14 in., broadly elliptic, tip very shortly acuminate, base rounded on 
the quasi-petiole, |} in. long. At each of the lower nodes is a leafless. 
cylindric sheath } in. long, bored at the base by a peduncle { in. long, 
carrying a dense head hardly } in. in diam. Sepals ;'5 in. long, 
glabrous. Filaments with a few hairs. Ovary glabrous, with 2-1 
ovules in each cell.—Durand & Schinz, Conspect. Fl. Afr. v. 433. 
Buforrestia ? tenuis, C. B. Clarke in DC. Monogr. Phan. iii. 234. 
Lower Guinea. Spanish Gaboon : Corisco Bay, Mann, 1873! 
The essential difference of Forrestia from Buforrestia lies in the 2—1-ovuled cells 
of the ovary leading to a globose (not narrow-oblong) capsule. As I was not abso- 
lutely certain abont the number of ovules, and as Forrestia is a genus confined to 
South-east Asia, I attached this species with (?) to Buforrestia in DC, Monogr. Phan. 
lc. Mr. Bentham has satisfied himself that the ovules are 2—1 only in each cell, and 
he observes that the inflorescence is exactly that of Forrestia, and (as between these 
two genera) considers that this species ought to be attached to Forrestia But I suspect, 
when the fruit is known, thatit will be found to be a new genus ; the quadrangular 
branches and rounded leaf-base are exceedingly unlike Forrestia. 
2. F. africana, K. Schum. Nearly glabrous, except the ciliate. 
mouth of the leaf-sheaths. Stem 2 ft. (at least) long, trailing, rooting 
at the nodes, terete or very obscurely angular, leafless below. Leaves 
4 by 4 in., elliptic, narrowed at the base into a quasi-petiole }-} in. 
long. Peduncles less than } in. long, perforating the base of the leaf- 
sheaths. Inflorescences 3-11 by } in., very dense unilateral spikes, 
obscurely pubescent ; the ovate greea bracts } in. long, imbricated in 
two series (as in many species of Cyanotis). 
Upper Guinea. Cameroons, Preuss, 1319! Bipinde, Zenker, 853! 
