Meniecylon] liv. melastomace^. 369 



handles of hatchets, etc. ; the fruit of this tree, which consists 

 of clear blue berries, is eaten by the natives. Apparently the 

 same plant (or plants) is that mentioned by Welwitsch, Apont. 

 p. 570, under n. 169, as a slender tree, belonging to the sub-order 

 Memecylese and indigenous in Pungo Andongo, with well- 

 flavoured blue berries ; these when eaten colour the lips black, 

 and thus point to the origin of the name Melastoma. 



LV. PLECTRONIACEtE. 



1. PLECTRONIA L. Mant. PI. (i.) p. 6 (1767), neque DC. nee 

 Benth. & Hook. f. Olinia Thunb. in Rom. Ai-chiv. ii., pars 1, p. 4 

 (1799) ; Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. PI. i. p. 785. 



1. P. ventosa L. Mant. PI. (i.) p. 52 (1767), excl. syn. ; Herb. 

 Linn. ! ; neque DC. nee Sond. 



Olinia cymosa Thunb. Rom. Archiv. ii., pars 1, p. 4 (1799); 

 Bonder in Harv. & Sond. Fl. Cap. ii. p. 520 (1862); Hiern in 

 OHv. Fl. Trop. Afr. ii. p. 485. P . flm^ibunda Buchinger ex Krauss 

 in Flora, 1844, p. 348. 



HuiLLA. — A shrub 4 to 7 ft. high, branched nearly from the base ; 

 branches nodose, patent ; branchlets acutely tetragonal ; leaves varying 

 from elliptical to ovate, rather obtuse and emarginate at the apex, 

 thinly coriaceous, deep-green above, paler beneath, midrib and veins 

 beautifully atro-sanguineous, densely pellucid-venulose, margin 

 narrowly cartilaginous ; flowers very sweetly fragrant with the aroma 

 almost of Daphne ; calyx green, truncate at the mouth, obscurely 

 5-toothed ; petals (possibly to be considered calyx-lobes ?) 5, always 

 petaloid, whitish, sessile with a broad base on the inner face of the 

 throat or limb of the calyx, alternating with 6 interposed scales ; 

 stamens 5, opposite the scales and inserted below them ; ovary 

 minute, 5-celled or sometimes only 3- or 4-celled ; ovules pendulous 

 from a central column ; style straight, firm, subcoriaceous, sparingly 

 but constantly pilose with spreading hairs ; stigma truncate. In 

 rocky hilly thickets between Humpata and Lopollo, sporadic ; fl. 

 30 Dec. 1859. Near Lopollo ; fl. March 1860. No. 991. 



Welwitsch, in a letter to me, 16 Sept. 1870, with reference to this 

 plant wrote as follows : — " In the living plant the so-called petals look 

 very different in colour, structure, and consistence from the calyx ; 

 besides, the insertion seemed to me always to be inside the calycine 

 margin. The white bracts at the base of the flowers I have never 

 found so conspicuous as they seem to occur on the Cape plant ; 

 coloured bracts, of the same colour as the flowers, are very frequent 

 among Combretaceous genera, but never a multilocular ovary." 



Olinia usamharensis Gilg in Eng. <fe Prantl. Nat. Pflanzenfam. 

 iv. 3, p. 216 fig. 74 a— G (p. 215) (1894) and in Engl. Bot. Jahrb. xix. 

 p. 278 (1894) agrees in the dry state very closely with our 

 specimens; it was collected by Hoist n. 9115 in the elevated 

 forest-region of Usambara at Kwa Mochuza in August 1893. 



This genus presents points of difficulty in many respects, and 

 especially with reference to its sti'ucture, its position in the 

 Calyciflorse, the limitation of its species, and its correct name. 



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