FURTHER NOTE ON COINOCHLAMYS. 139 



reasons to be shown below, I felt bound to follow the late Dr. 

 Anderson and Mr. Bentham in considering it to be a peculiar 

 Acanthacea. Quite recently, however, I have been looking over the 

 specimens belonging to this order gathered in E. Tropical Africa 

 by Dr. Schweinfurth, and transmitted to Kew. This collection 

 literally teems with new species, and with species known hitherto 

 only from the western side of the Continent, and I immediately 

 recognised in it a Coinochlamys from Niamniam Land (Schweinfurth, 

 Nos. 8080 and 8181), which is either a variety of C. Jdrsuta, T. And. 

 or else a new specific form intermediate between that and C. angolana. 

 The stamens in Schweinfurth' s plant are five in number, the 

 filaments being of unequal length as in C. angolana, and the 

 stigma is precisely as in that species. When Professor Oliver 

 saw the note, he immediately drew my attention to Mostuea in 

 LoganiacecB, which, besides being a compatriot, has the stigma, 

 placenta, ovules, and fruit of the supposed Acanthacea. It was 

 exceedingly unfortunate that Anderson should have described the 

 anthers as didynamous, and that Bentham should have followed 

 him, though owing to the scantiness of typical material it was 

 most probably Avithout examination that this was done. By good 

 fortune, Soyaux's specimen, the t}^3e of C. angolana, had good 

 fruits and seeds ; but while examining the latter, so impressed was 

 I with the alleged didynamy of the stamens, an allegation to some 

 extent borne out by the inequality of the filaments in C. angolana, 

 that I mistook for cotyledons what on re-examination proves to be 

 a mass of fleshy albumen, and, failing to separate the embryo, 

 interpreted this as the radicle. The embryo is very small relatively 

 to the albumen, and it has a curiously long radicle, which is 

 a character of some species of Mostuea. The ovules cannot be 

 described as retinaculate, although a small piece of placentary 

 tissue is seen at theu' back ; the placentas are, in fact, much as 

 shown in Oliver's figure of Mostuea (LejJtocladus, Oliv.) in 'Proc. 

 Linn. Soc.,' viii., t. 12, f. 3. 



Under these circumstances, it is plain that Coinochlamys does 

 not belong to AcanthacecB at all, but that it agrees as to structure 

 in so many points with Mostuea that it must be refeiTed to the 

 immediate proximity of the latter in LoganiacecB. I am not pre- 

 pared to decide whether the characters are of generic value ; 

 should they be so, its autonomy will be based on the peculiar 

 inflorescence, partite calyx, and unequal-lengthed stamens. 



I may mention that in fig. d of the plate accompanying the 

 note, the placenta is drawn too near the base of the ovarian cavity, 

 and that the albumen has a dark line running down the middle, 

 making it look suspiciously like two cotyledons. Li Schweinfurth 's 

 plant, some, at least, of the flowers have a small subulate bract 

 barely 1 mm. in length, and a very minute sixth flower was present 

 in the involucre I opened. Finally small interpetiolar stipules are 

 to be seen, which are especially plain in C. angolana. 



The following emendations will have to be made in the generic 

 diagnosis : — ' Stamina 5, medio tubo afiixa, inclusa ; filamenta 

 parum inaequalia.' * Ovula in quoque loculo 2, collateralia, septo 



