Tab. 7584. 

 DRACAENA Godseffiana. 

 Native of the Coast of Guinea. 



Nat". Ord. Liliacea:.— Tribe Dracaene;e. 

 ' ; enu8 Dracaena, Linn. ; (Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. Plant, vol. iii. p. 779.) 



Dracaena (Surculosse) Godseffiana ; frntex diffusus rauiosns, ramis gracilibus 

 subverticillatis, foliis oppositis v. lernatim verticillatis submembranaceis 

 ellipticis acuminatis basi acutis in petiolum brevissimum angustatis albo 

 maculatis, racemo brevi breviter pedunculato e ramulo dependente ascen- 

 dente, floribus pollicaribus ternatim fasciculatis breviter pedicellatis, 

 bracteis lanceolitis membranaceis pedicellos sequantibus, bracteolis 2 

 minutiy, perianthii navo-virescentis tubo gracili basi clavato, lobis tubo 

 paullo brevioribus linearibus obtusis, filamentis lobis perianthii eequi- 

 longis, antheris oblongip, stylo gracili exserto, baccis ^— § poll. diam. 

 globosis coccineis. 



D. Godseffiana, Sort. Sander, ex Baker in Gard. Qhron. 1894, vol. ii. p. 212. 

 Southron in The Garden, 1896, p. 276, ic Xylog. 



There are in tropical Western Africa a considerable 

 number of species of Dracaena, differing in habit from 

 their congeners, in having slender scandent, or at least 

 rambling, branching stems. Of these the type is 

 D. surculosa, Lindl., a spotted-leaved variety of which 

 is figured at tab. 5662 of this work ; and there are others 

 described and undescribed, which will be published in the 

 forthcoming volume of the " Flora of Tropical Africa," a 

 work now far advanced by the staflf of the Herbarium of 

 Kew. Of these D. surculosa is that to which D. Godseffiana 

 is most nearly allied, the great difference between them 

 being in the almost capitate inflorescence of D. surculosa. 

 Both vary considerably in the form and spotting of the 

 leaves. .D. Godseffiana was first sent to Kew in 1892, by 

 Mr. Henry Millen, Curator of the Botanical Station at 

 Lagos. It was subsequently imported by Messrs. Sander 

 & Co. of St. Albans. It forms a very decorative stove 

 shrub, flowering in March. 



Descr. — A slender, rambling, branched, subscandent 

 shrub ; stem flexuous, about as thick as a crow-quill, pale 

 brown, annulate. Leaves three to nearly five inches long, 

 opposite, or ternately whorled, very shortly petioled, elliptic 



March 1st, 1898 



