460 FLORA NIGRITIANA. 
more distinctly the points which induced him to separate this 
from Afzelius’ original species, gathered at Sierra Leone also by 
Don, who has published it under the name of A. nobilis. The 
foliage is the same in both. The very singular spines do not 
appear on Don’s specimen, but it is cut off immediately above 
the place where they should be; for these spines do not appear 
to me to be correctly designated as supra-axillary, but are rather 
laterally infra-foliaceous, for if they have any connection with 
the leaves, it must be with the pair above them, being placed, 
as represented in the Plate, immediately under the petiolar 
expansions on each side. The chief absolute distinction relied 
on between the two species, is the number of divisions of the 
corolla and of stamens, said in Don’s plant to be twelve, m 
Vogel’s fifteen ; but I find that number variable in both cases; 
one of Don’s flowers has only eleven, another has thirteen, and 
the remaining five or six have twelve each. Vogel’s vary still 
more ; fifteen is indeed the prevailing number, but I have in 
several found either sixteen or fourteen, and in one case only 
thirteen. A third supposed species, published by Don under 
the name of A. macrophylla, is again, most probably, the same 
plant described from a cultivated specimen. If further investi- 
gation confirms these suppositions, there would be but one 
species known, which should retain Don's name of A. nobilis: 
LXXV. GeNTIANEX. 
l. Canscora diffusa, Br.—Griseb. in DC. Prod. 9. p- v 
Sierra Leone, Don ; Senegal; a common East Indian plant, 
found also in Abyssinia. ; 
The Senegambian collection contains also an unpublished 
Gentianeous plant, allied to Microcala and Slevogtia, but gt 
agreeing precisely with any one of Grisebach’s genera. It 1s 8 
slender annual, with solitary, axillary, opposite flowers, 9n 
8-ribbed, 4-toothed calyx, and a regular corolla. 
