56 SOUTH NIGERIAN PLANTS 
Near T. aurea Hiern, but distinguished by the shape and 
indumentum of the leaves, the long petioles, the stipules, etc. 
Lasianthus Mannii Wernham sp. nov. Frutex ramulis com- 
planatis dense praecipue in nodis hirsutis ; foliis petiolatis obovato- 
lanceolatis vel ellipticis breviter acuminatis acutis basi cuneatis 
subtus praecipue in nervis et margine supra in vena media sola 
sparse hirsutis; stipulis a basi lata triangularibus ut ramuli 
indutis; floribus in cymis alaribus 3-4-floris sessilibus inter 
minimos 5-meris ; corollae tubo extus glabro lobis lanceolatis 
obtusis irregulariter pilosis ; drupa 10-lobata depresso-globosa. 
Oban ; n. 266. ! 
The leaves are from 19 to 24 em. long and 6°5 to 8 cm. broad; the 
densely hairy petiole is from 3 to 4 em. long. Leaf-veins well-marked 
on both sides of the leaf, divaricate, meeting the midrib perpendicularly 
and curving upwards until parallel with the margin; the veins are 
closely set, 11-14 pairs with nearly the same number of shorter veins 
intervening. Stipules 7 mm. or longer, 5-6 mm. broad at the base. 
Flowers barely 5 mm. long. Fruit 4-5 mm. in diameter, with a broad 
10-furrowed crown. 
Its nearest ally is L. batangensis K. Schum., from which it differs 
in the much larger and differently-shaped leaves and longer petioles, 
in the leaf-venation, in the arrangement of the flowers, and in the size 
of the fruit. Our species is apparently identical with the plant 
collected by Mann on the Gaboon River (n. 917), preserved in the 
Kew Herbarium, although the latter is not quite so hairy (vide Hiern, 
in Fl. Trop. Afr. iii. 228). ; 
COMPOSITZE by Mr. S. Moore. 
Contrary to what is usually found in an African collection, 
the Composite form quite an inconspicuous element in the one 
under notice, and indeed the Composite flora of Upper Guinea 
is a poor one at best. One sees the same relative poverty when 
comparison is drawn between Eastern Brazil and Amazonia, 
India and the Malay Peninsula, and the interior of Australia 
and its northern coasts. In these cases the country more open 
in character and drier in climate is the richer in Composite, a 
fact of high antecedent probability, seeing that the fruit is edis- 
persed chiefly by means of the pappus, and in a moist, densely 
afforested district this dispersal would be restricted not only by. 
liability of the pappus to collapse, but because the thickly 
growing vegetation would form an obstacle to the achenes in 
their flight. 
Vernonia frondosa Oliver & Hiern (n. 494) is a fine species 
hitherto unrepresented in the National Herbarium. 
Sphaeranthus ($ Pauciflori) Talbotii S. Moore (in Macleod 
“Chiefs and Cities of Central Africa,” 303). Herba veri- 
similiter humilis; ramis subsparsim foliosis anguste alatis cito 
