338 hu. COMBRETACE.E. [Temiinalia 



species ; Welwitsch never noticed in Angola whitish or yellow- 

 petals in the typically red-flowering species, nor red petals in the 

 typically white or yellowish species. 



The wood of several species of Terminalia and of the arbores- 

 cent Comhreta is very valuable and held in high estimation by the 

 colonists, as for instance that of the Mueia and the Gususii. The 

 roots and bark of some species are used as yellow and black dyes ; 

 and those of others as an astringent in skin diseases and diarrhoea, 

 T. CaUvpjm L., which has been long cultivated in the Cape de 

 Verde Islands and in St. Thomas and Prince's islands, is a capital 

 tree for avenues and moreover supplies well-flavoured seeds. 

 Laguncidaria racemosa Gaertn. f. is well suited for making dams 

 to prevent the washing away of the beach on the sea-shore ; it 

 grows almost exclusively and thrives well in salt water, in 

 company with Avicennia and Rhizophora ; in some negro villages 

 the bruised leaves are employed for tanning and dyeing brown 

 fishermen's nets, either alone or mixed with the leaves of Chryso- 

 balamts Icaco L. The Mube, Comhretimi holosericeum Sond., 

 supplies the people of Loanda with excellent firewood, and on that 

 account has become rai-er and rarer in that neighbourhood. The 

 flowers of most species afford ample food for bees. 



1. TERMINALIA L. ; Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. PI. i. p. 685 

 {excl. syn. Bucida L.). 



1. T. Catappa L. Mant. PI. ii. p. 519 (1771); Welw. Apont. 

 p. 567 sub n. 164; Laws, in Oliv. Fl. Trop. Afr. ii. p. 416; 

 Ficalho, PI. Uteis, p. 182 (1884). 



Buceras Bucida Crantz, Inst. i. p. 133 (1766). 



Island of St. Thomas. — Coast region, in the ascent to I^azenda do 

 Monte CafEe ; fl. without fr. end of Dec. 1860. Cultivated under the 

 name of " Amendoeira das Westindias," but a native of the East 

 Indies. No. 4293Z' and Cull. Carp. 19. 



Cape de Ykrdi: Islands. — A handsome tree, about 25 ft. high. 

 Cultivated in S. lago, in Valle de S. Domingo, in gardens, etc., and 

 called " Amendoeira da India " (the Indian almond tree) ; fl. and fr. 

 Jan. 1861. No. 4293. Ripe fr. Jan. 1861. " Amendoeira das West- 

 indias." Coll. Carp. 547. 



Welwitsch recommended that this tree should be introduced in 

 Angola. (See Welwitsch, I.e.) 



2. T. sericea Burch. ex DC. Prodr. iii. p. 13 (1828) ; Laws., I.e. 

 Var. angolensis. 



T. angolensis Welw. ex Ficalho in Bol. Soc. Georg. Lisb., ser. 2, 

 p. 708 (Feb. 14, 1882), and PI. Utei.s, p. 182 (1884); Elliot in 

 Journ. Linn. Soc. xxx. p. 79 (1894); ? 0. Hoffmann in Linnaea 

 xliii. p. 131 (1881). 



Ambaca. — A sparingly leafy tree, 15 to 20 ft. high ; trunk straight ; 

 head widely spreading ; leaves thinly coriaceous, evergreen, greenish- 

 glaucous, rather bright, paler beneath ; flowers white. In mountainous 

 rocky places near the cave at Puri-Cacarambola, at an elevation of 

 about 3000 feet, not abundant ; fl. middle of Oct. 1856. No. 4339. 



