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XVII. Description of a new Gene of Plants belonging to the Natural Family 
Bignoniaceæ. By Davin Don, Esq., Libr. L. S., Prof. Bot. King's Coll. Lond. 
Read November 20th, 1838. 
THE interesting subject of the present paper formed part of a small but 
valuable collection obtained during a journey through the interior of South- 
ern Africa to the western coast, by Captain Sir James Edward Alexander, who 
has recently given to the world the result of his observations on those hitherto 
little known regions, and who obligingly presented to me the specimen whence 
the accompanying drawing and description were taken, and which happened 
to be the only one of the plant he collected. It was discovered by that enter- 
prising traveller, growing in dry arid soil, in the open desert, called the Great 
Flat or Kei Kaap, in Great Namaqua Land, in 25 S. latitude, and 17 E. lon- 
gitude. The plant was but just then in flower, so that the fruit even in an 
early state is still a desideratum. Sir James Alexander represents it as a 
thorny bush, about six feet high, with several straight, nearly simple, twiggy 
stems, bearing small hoary wrinkled leaves, and white flowers. Indeed the 
whole aspect of the plant bespeaks the aridity of the region in which it 
grows. 
There can be no doubt that the plant does really belong to the Bignoniaceæ, 
although in habit it bears a stronger resemblance to J'erbenacec, especially to 
Duranta and Gmelina, and, in the absence of both flower and fruit, one would 
never suspect that the specimen pertained to a Bignoniaceous plant. In its 
spathaceous calyx, and in its regular funnel-shaped corolla, the genus comes 
near to Spathodea, but is abundantly distinguished from it by the cells of the 
anthers being parallel, and connate from the middle upwards. The ovarium 
I have only seen in a very young state, and I am therefore unable to say any- 
thing concerning the probable condition of the mature fruit or of the seeds. 
On the specimen are two fully expanded flowers and a bud. The calyx in all 
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