NOTICES OF BOOKS, 95 
at Inhambame, in the Mozambique, and carrying on: a: considerable 
trade with the Caffres of the interior in elephants’ teeth and gold dust. 
From them he obtained, amongst others, specimens of ebony-wood and 
of Mafura, together with flowering and fruit specimens of the trees 
which produce them, each of which forms the subject of a dissertation 
in the work before us. After a lengthened inquiry into the various 
opinions hitherto entertained of the Ebony-tree of the ancients, Pro- 
fessor Bertoloni proceeds to a detailed botanical description of the tree 
now ascertained to produce it, as a new genus of Leguminosae, appro- 
priately named Fornasinia ebenifera, after the Cavaliere who procured 
the specimens. Two coloured plates illustrate the botanical characters, 
and represent a portion of the wood. The genus, one. of those which 
would formerly have been classed under Robinia of Linneus, is, as sug- 
gested by the Professor, very closely allied to Sphinctolobium of Vogel, 
and Neuroscapha of Tulasne; but a careful study of the figure and de+ 
scription shows that it is still nearer to, and, to our minds, identical 
with, Millettia of Arnott, of which two African species are already 
published by Hochstetter under the name of Berebera, and by Meissner 
under that of Millettia. 
The vegetable fat known to the natives by the name of Mafura, and 
the oil called by them Mutiana, are extracted from the seeds of a tree 
named by them Mafuri, and by the Portuguese settlers Mafureiro. 
From this name Professor Bertoloni has derived that of Mafureira 
oleifera, which he gives to the tree. He describes it as a new genus of 
Sapindacee, allied to Cupania. We should rather refer it to Trichilia, 
among Meliacee ; nor can we easily distinguish it as a species from 
the Elkaja of Forskahl, or Trichilia emetica, Vahl. 
min 
Illustrazioni di PIANTE MozaAMBIGESI; dal PROFESSORE GIUSEPPE 
BERTOLONI. Dissertazione I. 
This Memoir, read before the Academy of Sciences of Bologna in 
1850, but probably printed in 1851, by the younger Bertoloni, is a 
continuation of his father’s interesting illustrations of the vegetable 
productions of the Mozambique, transmitted by the Cavaliere Fornasini. 
The subjects treated of are—1. The root Guibotana, supplying the prin- 
cipal ingredient of the poison in which the Caffres steep their arrows 
and lances. The plant is a Plumbago, which the Professor thinks may 
possibly be the Plumbago Zeylaniea, B glaucescens, of Boissier, but 
certainly specifically distinct from the Linnean species; he therefore 
