edges of the petals." There are specimens in the Kew 

 Herbarium from the forest region of West Africa, which 

 extends from the Congo at Stanley Pool, lat. about 4° S., 

 to where Welwitsch found it in lat. 9° S. Monteiro, who 

 saw it on the sides of hills at Quiballa, in lat. 7' 40° S., 

 describes it as appearing as soon as he left the gneiss 

 formation, and entered that of mica slate, where the stout 

 roots spread far in the hard clay of the decomposed rock, 

 and shoot out into other plants. 



The name Gamoensia was given by Dr. Welwitsch as a 



tribute to the memory of the illustrious Portuguese poet, 



Louis Camoens, author of the " Lusiade," in which is 



introduced the voyage of discovery of Vasco di Gama, whom 



Camoens had in his youth accompanied as a soldier. 



He had previously, in his " Apontamente," imperfectly 



characterized it as Giganthemum scandens, referring it to 



Robiniacese (presumably tribe Galegese of Leguminosse). 



The name was suppressed, at his own request, and replaced 



by Gamoensia). The genus consists of two species, G, 



maxima and G. brevicalyx, Benth. The second species 



was discovered on the Muni River, in lat. 1° N. by G. 



Mann. Bentham says of the genus, " It stands alone in 



Leguminosse, as combining the lofty climbing woody stems 



and habits of many Dalbergiese, with the digitately trifo- 



liolate leaves of Podalyriese and GenistesB, while the flowers 



place it amongst Sophorex" 



Seeds of Gamoensia maxima were sent to Kew by M. 

 Monteiro in 1873 ; these germinated freely, and young 

 plants were largely distributed. The first to flower 

 (in 1882) was one sent to the Botanical Gardens of 

 Trinidad ; the next (1894) was in that of Ceylon, and in 

 September of the same year a third flowered with Mrs. 

 Euddle of Mythe Castle, Tewksbury. A specimen in 

 the Royal Botanic Gardens of Edinburgh bore in 1897 

 racemes of 16 to 18 flowers. Our drawing was taken 

 from a plant that flowered in the Royal Gardens, Kew, in 

 November, 1896. 



Descr. — A gigantic, woody climber, with pendulous 

 flowering branches; young shoots, petioles, and in- 

 florescence clothed with a scurfy brown deciduous tomen- 

 tum. Leaves digitately trifoliolate ; petiole slender, three 

 to six inches long ; leaflets about as long as the petiole, 



