Tab. 69/5. 



THUXBERGIA affinis. 



Native of Zanzibar. 



Nat. Ord. Aoanthack.e. — Tribe Thunbebgie^;. 

 Genus Thcxbeeoia, Linn.f.; {Benth. et Hoolc.f. Gen. PI. vol. iii. p. 1072.) 



Thuneergia (Eutbunbergia) affinis ; frutex suberectus, glaberrimus, ramulis 

 4-gonis, foliis breviter petiolatis elliptici.s acutis obtusisve integerrimis basi 

 acutis, floribus subsolitariis amplis, bracteis late ovatis acutis, calycis glandulosi 

 laciniis 10-11 subulatis, una longiore, corolla? violacese tubo bracteis duplo 

 longiore supra basiD recurvo, lobis amplis rotundatis retusis, filamentorum 

 stylique apiuibus glandulosis, antberarum loculis setosis, stigmatis lobo inferiors 

 cucullato superiore erecto truncate 



T. affinis, S. Moore in Britten's Journ. Bot. vol. xviii. (1880), p. 5 ; Gard CJiron 

 Ser. 3, vol. ii. (1887), p. 460, fig. 91, 



I think it is extremely doubtful whether this beautiful 

 plant will prove to be anything more than an as it were 

 glorified form of the old'T. erecta s T. Anders. (Meyenia 

 ereda, Benth. ; Bot. Mao., t. 5013), which is a native of the 

 shores of the Gulf of Guinea. This latter plant differs in its 

 more ovate acuminate and strongly sinuate leaves, and its 

 much smaller shorter bracts and flowers; its lower branches 

 are more strongly four-angled, and the calycine segments 

 are shorter. On the other hand, the form of the flower is 

 the same in both, and in those important organs, the 

 anthers and the curious stigma, they are absolute identity. 

 The fact is, that the more the botanist knows of the 

 tropical African Flora, the more impressed he is with the 

 wide area occupied by its species, and the indefiniteness of 

 the characters of so many of them. , The genus Tinnea 

 affords an example of this, very analogous to that of these 

 Thunbergias; for T. cethiopica, var. dentata (Plate 6744), 

 bears the same relation in point of smaller size of leaves, 

 and their being toothed, and of bracts and flowers, to the 

 original^ T. cethiopica (Plate 5637), that T. ererta does to 

 T. affinis; indeed, had the latter not already been dis- 

 tinguished and described and named as a different species, 

 it is very probable that it would now appear in this work 



Jan. 1st, 1888. 



