FLORA NIGRITIANA. 487 
to determine.—Sierra Leone, Don; and apparently the same 
species from Senegambia, Heudelot. 
3. Vitex sp.—A single leaf, brought by a native from the River 
Sann to Captain Trotter as the African Oak or Teak. 
The wood, so well known in our Navy under the name of 
African Oak or African Teak, is a remarkable instance of a 
highly valuable and most extensively used timber, of which the 
tree that supplies it is wholly unknown to science. Botanical 
collectors have frequently made it the object of their researches 
and inquiries ; but ,on the one hand, no botanist appears to have 
actually visited the forests which furnish it ; and on the other, 
the natives who have brought leaves as from the trees, either by 
ignorance or carelessness, or more probably from ill-judged 
Interested motives, have evidently in most cases deceived us. 
Thus we have heard that among various leaves brought to 
r. Brown, as found amongst the timber, the principal part 
appeared to be those of a Laurinea. The plant, brought home 
by the Earl of Derby’s collector, and now in Kew Gardens, is 
too young to determine, but looks more like a Sapotaceous 
plant, The greater probability, however, is in favour of the 
Vitex-looking leaf, given to Captain Trotter: it is perfectly 
Smooth, palmately compound, with six (probably seven, of 
which one is lost) folioles, of which the longest are above 
5 inches long, and much narrowed at both ends. With every 
*ppearance of a Vitex, it is quite distinct from any described 
Species, 
Besides the above, there is a Vitex ferruginea, Schum. et 
onn., from Guinea, and a species apparently allied to 1t, 
though distinct, in Heudelot’s Senegambian collection. 
1. Avicennia Africana, Beauv.—Schau. in DC. Prod. 11. p. 
669.— Grand Bassa and Cape Palmas, Vogel; Sierra Leone, 
Don; Senegal to Benin. Probably not distinct from the 
erican A. nitida, Jacq. 
LXXXIII. LABIATA. 
1. Ocymum: canum, Sima.— Benth. in. DC. Prod. 12. p. 99 
