184 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
amongst the timber, the prineipal 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 for us 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 five inches long, and 
much narrowed at both ends. With every appearance of a Vitex, it 
is quite distinct from any described species.” 
Flowers and fruit, as far as we know, had never been attempted to 
be sent. At length, in March of the present year, we had the satis- 
faction to receive foliage and fruit from Richard Albert Oldfield, Esq. 
(Marshal of the Mixed Commission and Vice-Admiralty Courts at 
Sierra Leone, long resident there and at Fernando Po, and largely 
engaged in mercantile affairs), accompanied by a letter, assuring us of 
the difficulties that attended the obtaining of specimens from the 
interior, where alone they are procurable ; but promising to send 
again into the * bush," at the proper season for flowering specimens, 
in May and June. In the meantime, we are anxious to give all the 
information we at present possess relating to this valuable tree ; and it 
is very satisfactory to find that the leaves now sent are identical 
with those in Dr. Vogel’s collection, above alluded to: We imme- 
diately placed our materials, such as they are, in the hands of Mr. 
. Bentham, and he had little hesitation in pronouncing the /eaves and 
— fruit to belong to a new form of Zuphorbiacez, and none in considering 
the latter indicative of a new genus of plants, to which we propose 
= to give the name of the gentleman who has so successfully exerted 
himself to procure the specimen. 
OLDFIELDIA, Benth. § Hook. 
Nat. Ord. EurnHoRBIACEEX? 
. Capsula subtriquetro-globosa, trilocularis, loculicide trivalvis; valvulis 
. sublignosis medio septiferis integris columnam centralem semini- 
feram nudantibus. Semina in quoque loculo gemina, collateralia, 
. v. abortu solitaria, ex apice columna centralis pendula, obovata, 
. compressa, hilo prope apicem laterali affixa, exarillata. Testa 
. coriacea, levis; albumen cartilagineum ; cotyledones planze, foliaceze, 
