Tab. 7367. 

 LEPTACTINA Mannii. 



Native of Tropical West Africa. 



Nat. Ord. BuBiACEiE. — Tribe Gaedenie^. 

 Genus Leptactina, Hook. f. ; (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant, vol. ii. p. 85.) 



Leptactina, Mannii ; frutex 12-pedalis, ramosus, fere glaberrimus, ramulis 

 crassis, foliis 5-8 poll. longis oblongis obovato-oblongisve obtusis basi 

 in petiolum brevem alatum angastatis, nervis utrinque ad 9 patentibus, 

 stipulis amplis ramo latioribus oblongo-rotundatis recnrvis quasi inflatis 

 persistentibus, floribns magnis in fasciculos terminales inter folia summa 

 congestis sessilibus, calycis tubo brevi pnberulo 10-costato, lobis amplis 

 erectis lineari-oblongis obtusis herbaceis ciliolatis, corollse tubo 4-pollicari 

 angusto tereti, fauce vix dilatato intus sericeo, lobis 5 2s-polLicaribus 

 anguste lanceolatis apice obtusis patenti-recurvis albi3, stylo superne 

 hirsuto, ramis cylindraceis. 



L. Mannii, Hoolc.f. in Hook. Ic. PI. vol. vi. (1871), p. 73, tab. 1092. Hiern, 

 in Oliv. Fl. Trop. Afr. vol. iii. p. 88. 



The genus Leptactina was established by myself when 

 preparing the Rubiacese for the " Genera Plantarum," upon 

 four tropical West African plants, and was published in the 

 " Icones Plantarum " cited above. To these two other 

 species have been added, also from tropical Africa, namely 

 L. heinsioides, Hiern, (in Oliver, Fl. Trop. Africa, vol. iii. 

 p. 88), and L. tetraloba, N.E. Br. in Gard. Chron. (1885), 

 vol. ii. p. 391. The genus is a near ally of Gardenia and 

 Bandia, differing from both in the terminal inflorescence, 

 and from the first named in the 2-celled ovary and folia- 

 ceous calyxlobes. 



Leptactina Mannii was discovered by Gustav Mann, Esq. 

 (late Inspector of Forests in Assam), when on a misson 

 under the Eoyal Gardens, Kew, to investigate the timber 

 resources of Western tropical Africa in 1862. He found 

 it on the banks of the Kongue or Gaboon river, in lat. 

 1° N. The specimen figured is that of a plant sent to 

 the Royal Gardens, Kew, from the Jardin des Plantes in 

 December, 1893, by Prof. Maxim Cornu, which flowered 

 August 1st, 1894. 



