Tar. 0943. 

 LONCHOCARPUS Babteui. 

 Native of Tropical Africa. 



Xat. Orel. Leguminos.e. — Tribe Dalbeegik.t;. 

 Genus LoNCHOC.iKPCs, If. B. et K.; (Bcnth. ct Hook. f. Gen. PL vol. i. p. 518.) 



Lonchocarpus (Fasciculati) Barteri ; alte scandals, foliii gracile petioUti*, 

 i'oliolis 5-7 elliptico-obl(>n>;is ticiitii inatis glabris, raoemia elongatis subpaniou- 

 latis gracilibus tonientellis, floribua t'lsciculatis brevitrr pcdiccllatis roteis, 

 ralyce liemispberico 5-crenato, vexillo orbiculari temuter serkvo brevit«-r 

 unguiculato, alis carinaque rectiusctilis, ovario scricco. stylo brovi, orulii 6—8, 

 legumine lineari-oblongo acuto basi angustato, semiinbus orbicularibus oom- 

 pressis. 



L. Barteri, Benth. in Jouvn. Linn. Sor. vol. i\\ SuppL p. 99. 



A very beautiful climber, belonging to a genus number- 

 ing nearly fifty species, all, with the exception of six 

 African, natives of Central and South America. It is 

 hence a representative in the Old World of a genus that is 

 characteristic of the New. Of this representation there 

 are various examples, of which the Cocoa-nut is the most 

 notable, all the other species of Cocos being confined to 

 South America, where C. nucifera is not known to be 

 indigenous. Derris, again, the very next genus of TjPqu- 

 minosce to Lonchocarpus, offers an example of the distribu- 

 tion in the opposite direction. It has five-and-thirty species, 

 all Asiatic except three tropical American; but what is 

 most curious in the case of Derris is, that it has not been 

 discovered either in Africa or Polynesia ; hence, in migrating 

 from Asia to America, it appears to have skipped over the 

 Dark Continent. 



L. Barteri was discovered by Mr. Barter, an indefatigable 

 collector from Kew, who accompanied Dr. Baikie's Niger 

 Expedition in 1856-7, and contributed a great number of 

 plants to the Garden and Herbarium at Kew. It is 

 probable, however, that Lonchocarpus Barteri was intro- 

 duced by Gustav Mann, also an e'Je'ce of Kew, and the 

 most successful of all botanical explorers of western tropical 



july 1st, 1887. 



