276 THE JomtXAL of botani' 



most of the specimens : the following is an extract fi*om his letter of 

 Jan. 30, announcing their despatch : 



*'.... Xearh^ all plants here [Bitye] are woody, and fully half of 

 them, I should think, haye weak climbing stems. These latter I 

 haye called, all, ' yines ' . . . . I use still the Bulu word ekotok \ 

 and if you want to substitute English you ^vill haye to say * mixed 

 growth on abandoned ground ' . . . . The natives here never keep 

 the land under cultivation long — or properly, never under cultivation 

 at all — and after clearing, and planting for a few seasons, they leave 

 the wild growth to spring up again. This new growth is partly from 

 roots and stumps left in the ground and large trees left standing at 

 the time of clearing, and partly from seeds of certain quick-growing 

 trees, vines and weeds characteristic of such land, and never found in 

 the forest .... EkotoJc goes gradually back to the forest ; these 

 quick-growing plants disappear, and true forest-growth takes their 

 place ; * old ekotok ' is that which is turning to forest again .... 

 Here, where there is no winter, there is no regular time of Howering 

 of each species ; still, I am sure that a long and careful course of 

 observation would show some kind of regularity in seasons, but it 

 would be hard to work out." 



I proceed to enumerate the Rubiacese in systematic order, describing 

 such as appear to be new. The consideration of certain critical forms 

 is reserved for a subsequent paper. 



Saecocephalvs esculentus Afzelius ex Sabine in Trans. Hort. 

 Soc. Lond. y. 442. t. IS (1824). Haviland, in Journ. Linn. Soc. 

 xxxiii. 25 (1897). 



No. 120G. "A large tree, stem 100 ft. to branches, about IS ins. • 

 in diameter, at top of a tall stump. Forest. Fruits said to be eaten 

 by natives : known as akonddky 



This species is confined to the tropics of the African continent, 

 wherein it has a wide distribution — laterally, at least, for it has not 

 been recorded from south of the equator. It appears most abundantly 

 about the Niger-basin ; but it ranges from Senegambia in the north 

 and west to Abyssinia in the east. According to Dr. Masters, it has 

 pink flowers and an edible fruit, of the size of a peach ; it is the 

 " peach" or "fig" of Sierra Leone, wdiere it is known as amelliky. 

 In Liberia it is called day (see Flor. Trop. Afr. iii. 39). 



Mussaenda bityensis, sp. nov. 



Frutex scandens, ramulis ferrugineis pulverulento-pubescentibus 

 tardius breviter irregulariter strigillosis. Folia venis primariis 

 lateralibus utrinque 9-11. Calycis lobi pro rata breves latiuscule 

 lanceolati acutissime acuminati, eorum uno petaloideam in laminam 

 candidam sa^pius producto. Cor ol Ice extus in super densiuscule 

 strigoso-sericeaj basin versus glabrata? limbus pro rata angustissimus. 

 Ovarium in anthesi tumidum notabile magnum oblongo-ovoideum. 



No. 1202. " Climbing shrub or vine ; forest. Corolla 3'ellow ; 

 conspicuous white leaf adnate to calyx." 



Allied to Ji. ohfuaa Kninse, from which it is readilv distinijuished 



