half of the petiole thickens, and the upper part at length 

 disarticulates, carrying the blade with it. The hardened 

 lower part persists in the form of a rigid, woody, recurved 

 spine. 



Tropical Africa is the centre of the greatest concen- 

 tration of the genus Clerodendron, no less than seventy 

 species being already on record therefrom. Noteworthy 

 among the African species in cultivation are G. Thomsons, 

 Balf., and G. macrosiphon, Hook. f. (Bot. Mag. t. 6695); 

 the latter is another of Sir John Kirk's numerous intro- 

 ductions. 



Descr. — A tall shrub, climbing by means of modified 

 petioles, glabrous or nearly so, some of the branches 

 armed with the spine-like, persistent petioles. Stems as 

 much as twenty feet long, and half an inch thick, hollow 

 between the nodes. Leaves distinctly stalked, thin, at 

 length somewhat coriaceous, ovate-lanceolate or oblong- 

 lanceolate, as much as ten inches long, but usually smaller, 

 acuminate, somewhat obtuse, cuneate or rounded at the 

 base ; primary lateral veins three or four on each side. 

 Floivers densely cymose-capitate ; cymes terminal, some- 

 times with lateral, smaller ones. Bracts and bracteoles 

 small and inconspicuous. Calyx showy, about nine lines 

 long, red, with oblong-lanceolate lobes. Gorolla white ; 

 tube very slender, three to three and a half inches long, 

 curved near the top; lobes of the limb oblong, unequal, 

 slightly recurved, six to nine lines long. Stamens exserted ; 

 filaments filiform, red. — W. B. H. 



Fig. 1, a young corolla laid open, showing the position of the stamens in 

 the bad ; 2, ovary ; 3 upper part of style and stigma : — all enlarged. 



