Tab. 7199. 



NAPOLEONA Mieksii. 



Native of tropical West Africa. 



Nat. Ord. Myrtace.e. Tribe Lecythidejl. 

 Genus Napoleona, Beauv. [Benth. & Hook./. Gen. Plant, vol. i. p. 723). 



Napoleona Miersii; glaberrima, foliis obovato-oblongis obtuse cuspidatis 

 remote sinuato crenatis membranaceis basi rotundatis cuneatisve, glan- 

 dulis marginalibus ad crenas distinctis, nervis utrinque 7-10 immersis, 

 corolla orbiculari circa 40-dentata et costata extus flava costis basi roseis', 

 mtustncolora, zona exteriore flavida, interiore rosea, intima alba, corona 

 extenore, e fibs ad 70 albis patulis, interiore membrana suberecta alba 

 ad medium multifida lacinns ad 40 acutis incurvis, intima (staminiea) 

 arete lnflexa 20-fida. lacinns apice triangulares 10 antheriferis per 

 paria dispositis, 10 anantheris per paria interpositis. 



The genus Napoleona, which in the structure of its 

 flowers is one of the most curious of flowering plants, 

 consists of about eight known species, all confined to 

 tropical Western Africa, between Senegal and Angola. 

 Owing to the rarity of specimens in Herbaria and under 

 cultivation, and the imperfect description and figures 

 given by the author of the genus of the only species 

 known to him (N. imperialis, Palisot de Beauvois, " Flore 

 d Oware et de Benin," vol. ii. p. 30, t. 78), much difficulty has 

 been experienced in determining the species. This has been 

 attempted by the late Mr. Miers, F.R.S., who, in 1874, 

 presented to the Linnean Society an elaborate and valuable 

 paper on the genus, of which he described seven species 



^°u ^/ol^ figU y ed in this ma S azine as #• imperiolis 

 (lab. 4d87), but which, as had been previously shown, was 

 not the plant so named by Palisot de Beauvois, but a very 

 different one, subsequently named N. Whitfieldii, after its 

 discoverer. By an oversight Miers has misrepresented the 

 authorship and confused the synonymy of this species (Whit- 

 fieldii), attributing it to Lindley, and citing for it that 

 author's description of it in the " Gardener's Chronicle " the 

 " Botanical Register," and " Vegetable Kingdom," in all 

 which Lindley assumed it to be N. imperialis. The real 

 author of the name N. Whitfieldii is Lemaire,who published 

 October 1st, 1891. 



