418 ON A NEW LAURUS. 



Legumen 4 — 5-polJ. Jongnm, medio J^ — 2-poll. latum. — 3/e- 

 mosa xylocarpa, lloxb. PI. Corom. 1. t. 100. {Acacia, Willd.; 

 Inga, DC.) Wall. Cat. n. 5277. — Inga lignosa, Grab, in 

 Wall. Cat. n, 5278. — Inga dolahriformis, Grab, in Wall. Cat. 

 n.52T9. — Mimosa Acle, Blanco, Fl. Filip. 738. — Various parts 

 of India, Roxburgh; Attran and Singapore, Wallich; Philip- 

 pine Islands, Blanco. Both Roxburgh and Father Bianco 

 describe the wood as very hard and valuable. 



XV. — On a new Laurus {subgen, Oreodaphne?) from 

 Southern Africa. 



[Tab. XXIII.] 



The Laurus here represented has been long cultivated in 

 the greenhouse of the Royal Botanic Garden of Kew, hav- 

 ing been introduced from the Cape of Good Hope by Mr 

 Bowie, under the name of the ^^ African Oak, or African Teak." 

 That the plant is a native of the vicinity of the Cape seems 

 xery improbable: the Lanrus (Ceramophora) buliata being the 

 only species, so far as I know, wiiich has been found at the 

 extreme southern extremity of that vast continent : nor did 

 Mr Bowie's travels extend so much to the northward, as to 

 render it probable that he should have fallen in with tlie true 

 " African Oak" which inhabits the interior of Sierra Leone. 

 The impression at the Botanic Garden has been, that it was 

 a cultivated plant at the Cape, and that it was given to Mr 

 Bowie as the real African Oak, of which nothing has hitherto 

 been known to Europeans but the commercial value of the 

 timber. Lately indeed, in the chink of a trunk of some Afri- 

 can Oak in our dock-yards, a leaf has been found, supposed 

 to belong to this wood, and which has been pronounced to be 

 that of some Laurineous Plant. It is this coincidence of cu'- 

 cumstances wliicb has induced me to direct attention to this 

 plant of our Botanic Garden ; for it otherwise possesses little 

 to recommend it, and the fruit is altosether unknown to me. 

 It has been suggested that the name of African Oak may have 



