15 



A NEW SECTION OF LONCHOCARPUS. 

 By S. T. Dunn, B A., F.L.S. 



Among the type examples of Millettia Thonningii (Baker in 

 Oliver, Fl. Trop. Afr. ii. 128) we find specimens of two African 

 trees with few-paired pinnate leaves and racemes of handsome 

 flowers, one, however, having its racemes ebracteate, pedunculate, 

 short and loose, wliile in the second they are long, compact, and 

 floriferous to their densely bracteate base. The names under 

 which they were originally described, vi/. (1) liohinia TJwnningii 

 Schum. & Thonn., and (2) Millettia Griffoniana Baill., are in- 

 cluded among the synonyms {loc. cit.). 



Baillon's tree is easily recognizable by its long crowded tail- 

 like racemes, and is represented by a remarkably complete series 

 of specimens collected all down the coast of tropical West x^frica, 

 from Sierra Leone to Angola, and there is no doubt that it is not 

 only specifically but generically distinct from the other. Even 

 over this large area, indeed, it maintains so close a uniformity of 

 characters that it cannot conveniently be divided into varieties, 

 though it shows a tendency in the southern portion of its range 

 to produce flowers with slenderer pedicels and smaller bracts upon 

 a thinner rachis. To this form belongs the Kamerun tree, which 

 Dr. Harms has described as Derris leptorJiacliis. There is no 

 doubt whatever that this and Baillon's tree belong to the same 

 species, and that with it must be associated a second species dis- 

 covered by Kitson in S. Nigeria, but to what genus they should 

 be referred was an open question until fruit was found ; Harms 

 was as well justified in referring his tree to Derris as Baillon his 

 to Millettia. Fruit has, however, now been collected in the 

 Kamerun forests, and, being indehiscent and wingless, necessitates 

 the removal of these species from Derris and Millettia to Lonclio- 

 carj^us, with which their turbinate calyx also agrees. They differ, 

 however, so markedly from any species of that genus known to 

 me that it appears convenient to keep them together under the 

 sectional name of Gaudaria, a designation suggested by the tail- 

 like appearance of their racemes. 



Lonchocarpus § Caudaeia sect. nov. 

 Flores in rachidibus longis pendulis sessilibus nodoso-racemosi. 



1. L. Griffonianus Dunn, nom. nov. Millettia Griffoniana 

 Baill. Adans. vi. (1866) 222 ; M. Thonnincjii Baker in Oliver, Fl. 

 Trop. Afr. ii. (1871) 128 ; Derris leptorhachis Harms in Engl. 

 Jahrb. xxvi. (1899) -302. 



West Trop. Africa. Sierra Leone, Barter, n. 1623, 3265 ; 

 Gold Coast, W. H. Johnson, n. 456 ; Lagos, Moloney, n. 21, Millen, 

 n. 129 ; Nigeria, Old Calabar, Mann, n. 2282, Chevalier, n. 5012 ; 

 Kamerun, Preuss, n. 1155 ; Batanga, Bates, n. 318 ; Galloon, 

 Soyaux, n. 101, Bates, n. 487 ; Congo, Hens, n. 335, Christian 

 Smith ; Angola, Wehvitsch, n. 1860-2. 



