Tab. 7572. 

 CAMOENSIA maxima. 



Native of Western Africa. 



Nat.Ord. Legtjminos^;. — Tribe Sophobe^e. 

 Genus Camoensia, Welw. ; (Benth. & Hook.f. Gen. Plant, vol. i. p. 557.) 



Camoensia maxima ; frutex alte scandens, ramis pendulis, ramulis petiolig 

 et inflorescentia rufo-fusco lanatis, foliis digitatim 3-foliolatis, foliolis 

 elliptico-v. obovato-oblongis acuminatis breviter petiolulatis glabris, 

 petiolo gracili, Btipulis conicis rigidis nunc evanidis, floribua maximis, in 

 racemoa multirloros pendulos breves axillares dispositis crasse pedicellatis, 

 bracteis bracteolisque parvis deciduis, calyce elongato anguste campanu- 

 lato breviter 2-labiato crasse coriaceo, labio superiore 2-fido inferiore 

 3-partito, petalis unguiculatia flabellatim mnlti-costatis lacteis marginibus 

 crispatulis aureis, vexillo suborbiculato 3-4-poll. lato in unguem costa- 

 tum angustato, ceteris multo minoribus angustioribusque, staminibus 

 petalis brevioribus, filamentis conniventibus glaberrimis, ovario lineari 

 stipitato rufo-lanato, stylo elongato, stigmate capitellato, legumine lato 

 lineari rufo-lanato oligospermo. 



C. maxima, Welw. ex Benth. in Trans. Linn. Soc. vol. xxv. (18G6), 301, t. 36. 

 Monteiro, Angola and the River Congo, vol. i. p. 176, t. vi. Ancona, in 

 Bull. Soc. Tosc. Hortic. 1886, p. 201, t. 9. Bearing in Deutsch. Gart. 

 Zeit. 1886, p. 453, fig. 99. Maury, Le Jardin, 1887, p. 199, fig. 89. Kew 

 Btdlet. 1894, p. 402. Gard. Chron. 1895, vol. i. p. 44; 1896, vol. ii. p. 596, 

 figs. 105, 106. Baker in Oliv. Fl. Trop. Afric. vol. ii. p. 252. 



Giganthemum scandens, Welw. Apont. p. 585. Hiern, Cat. Afr. PI. 

 Welwitsch, Dicot. Pars. I. p. 285. 



This superb climber, though familiar to Botanists, 

 chiefly through Dr. Welwitsch's indefatigable labours, was 

 discovered as early as 1816, by Christian Smith,* the 

 lamented Botanist attached to the unfortunate expedition 

 of Captain Tuckey to the Congo River, whose specimens of 

 it are preserved to the British Museum. Dr. Welwitsch 

 says of it, " Common in the dense forests of Golungo Alto, 

 adorning- the loftiest trees of the outskirts with its splendid 

 bunches of milk-white flowers, tinged with gold on the 



* I am indebted for this fact to Mr. Rendle, of the British Museum, to 

 ■whom I wrote respecting the statement by Bentham in the LinriEean Tran- 

 sactions, that specimens of Camoensia maxima, collected by Afzelius, were in 

 that Institution. Mr. Rendle informs me that this is an error, and that the 

 name of Christian Smith should be substituted for that of Afzelius, who 

 collected in a part of Africa (Sierra Leone) very far from the Congo region. 



January 1st, 1898. 



