JVestea] lvii. lythrace/E. 377 



with 6 valves or folds, many-seeded. In shortly and sparingly bushy 

 pastures, in rocky places sometimes flooded in summer, in company 

 with Machadoa huillen.'iis Welw. Herb. No. 865, Ascoh'pis spcciosa 

 Welw. No. 1674, and Thymelseacege, near Lopollo, at an elevation of 

 5000ft.;fl.andfr. end of Nov., Dec. 1859 and Jan. 1860. No. 2332. A 

 perennial herb ; rootstock woody, branched ; stems erect, very slender, 

 a foot high ; leaves linear ; flowers large, rosy. In hilly bushy places 

 near Lopollo ; fi. and fr. Dec. 18.59. Coll. Carp. 583. 



10. N. passerinoides Koelme, I.e., p. 338. 

 Ammannia jyasserinoides Welw. ex Hiern, I.e., p. 480. 



HuiLLA. — A strigulose-canescent plant, agreeing in habit with 

 Passerina ; branches virgate ; leaves opposite or alternate, strict ; 

 flowers clustered 3 to 7 together in the axils of the leaves, uni- 

 bracteolate at the base or the interior ones altogether ebracteolate ; 

 flowers constantly yellow ; calyx membranous, tetragonal, 4-lobed ; 

 cornua 4, very small or almost obsolete ; petals wanting or minute 

 and yellow ; stamens usually 4 exserted or 8 of which 4 are included ; 

 capsule apparently 1 -celled, dehiscing in a circumsciss manner, not 

 valvular or rarely with indications of 4 valves ; seeds orbicular-sub- 

 angular, convex on one face and concave on the other. At the swampy 

 margins of the Lopollo stream, in company with Zantedexchia hastata 

 (Welw. Herb. No. 232) and species of Salix, Xyris, and Gladiolus, at 

 an elevation of 5500 ft. ; fl. and fr. middle of March 1860. Specimens 

 collected during a sally from the fortress, when two of Welwitsch's 

 negroes were killed and five others escaped with him. No. 2336. 



11. N. lythroides Welw. ex Hiern in Oliv. Fl. Trop. Afr. ii. 

 p. 471 ; Koehne in Engl. Bot. Jahrb. iii. p. 338 (1882). 



MossAMEDES. — Habit of Lijthvum. In a moist marshy thicket with 

 lax herbage near Cavalheiros, in sandy-clayey places not unfrequently 

 quite flooded, sparingly ; fl. and fr. 21 Sept. 1859. No. 2335. In 

 moist sandy places with lax herbage, near Boca do Rio, at the banks 

 of the river Bero ; only one specimen seen ; fl. August and beginning 

 of Sept. 1859. Probably a young plant of this species. No. 2334. 



LVIII. ONAGRACE^]. 



Nearly all the species of this family hitherto discovered in 

 Angola proper are herbaceous or suffrutescent, and belong to the 

 genus Jussicea ; they inhabit swamps or meadows by the sides of 

 rivers and streams, and gradually increase in abundance from the 

 coast towards the uplands in the interior. The greater part of them 

 are inconspicuous herbs, and present but little or none of the 

 elegance and beauty of the American members of the family ; but 

 they are sufficiently curious and interesting to botanists, especially 

 as commemorating the venerated name of the talented Antoine 

 Laurent de Jussieu, the founder of the natural system. Tannic 

 acid abounds in these plants and, mixed with the ferruginous 

 particles which surround them on the banks of the rivers, pro- 

 duces a kind of black muddy deposit, which the Portuguese 

 colonists call lodo preto, and which the natives use for the purpose 

 of dyeing black various sorts of the fabric called Mahela, made 

 from the fibre of the Raphia palm. A specimen of this lodo is 



