392 Lxiii. cucuRBiTACE^. [Lagenaria 



between them and thus making the fruit quasi 6-celled ; seeds 

 ovate-lanceolate. On the sandy shore between Penedo and Concei§ao, 

 rather rare ; fl. and young fr., one specimen, beginning of Aug. 1858. 

 At the banks of the river Bengo ; fr. Dec. 1853. In moist thickets 

 along streams and in immense quantity at the banks of the river 

 Bengo and near Quicuxe ; also in maritime sandy sparingly grassy 

 places between Penedo and Concei^ao ; quite wild and abundant ; fl. 

 beginning of March 1858. No. 854. 



GoLUNC.o Alto. — A herb, climbing to a great distance ; flowers 

 white. Very frequently cultivated and often wild, at the bushy grassy 

 banks of streams near Sange ; fl. and fr. end of Feb. 185G ; and near 

 Bango, fr. July 1857. Native name " Binda," which is used also for 

 different varieties. A variety with small fruit, L. microcarpa Naud. in 

 Rev. Hort. 1855, p. 65 cum fig. It is difiicult to decide whether this 

 plant is indigenous here, but it is certain, according to Mariano, one of 

 Welwitsch's informants on such matters, that the Binda was in 

 frequent use among the negroes long before the conquest of the 

 country by the Portuguese. The variety with oblong fruit, which is 

 not bitter, is called in the trade by the negroes " Dinhungo," and is 

 eaten like the " Abobora branca," the Portuguese name of this species 

 in Portugal. No. 859 and Coll. Carp. 143. 



HuiLLA. — An annual or biennial herb, occasionally dioecious, some- 

 times monoecious, the whole plant musk-scented ; stem angular ; leaves 

 nearly undivided or somewhat lobed, unequally crenate-denticulate : 

 petiole rather long, with two opposite glands at the insertion of 

 the leaf -blade ; tendrils bifid ; peduncles axillary, solitary, 1 -flowered ; 

 petals obovate, narrowed at the base, not acute at the apex but 

 acuminate in the middle ; fruit flask-shaped, at the neck much shorter 

 and thicker than in the forms cultivated in Europe, eaten by the negroes 

 and recent colonists, when dry used for many domestic purposes and 

 serving instead of the shells of ostrich eggs. Everywhere wild about 

 dwellings, but the true home unknown (as is the case with the majority 

 of the most useful plants). Near Lopollo, Ohai, Humpata, etc. ; 

 LopoUo, male fl. 2 April 1860. An edible variety. No. 860. 



7. ACANTHOSICYOS Welw. ex Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. PI. i.p. 824. 



1. A. horrida Welw. ex Benth. k Hook. f. Gen. PI. i. p. 824, 

 and in Trans. Linn. See. xxvii. p. 31, tt. xi. xi.A (1869); Hook, 

 f. in Oliv. Fl. Trop. Afr. ii. p. 531 ; Cogn. in DC. Monogr. Phan. 

 iii. p. 419 (1881) ; Ficalho, PI. Uteis, p. 187 (1884). 



MossAMEDES. — A very singular shrub, 3 to 4 ft. high, repeatedly 

 branched, with its decumbent-ascending very ramulose and highly 

 intricate branches forming little mounds 10 to 15 ft. in diameter at 

 the base, covered by degrees with blown sand 5 to 10 ft. high, gummy ; 

 habit not very different from that of Asparagus stipulnris Forsk. in 

 Portugal ; stems green-glaucous, cylindrical, sulcate-striate, very 

 tenacious, flexible, much branched ; branches and the somewhat shaggy 

 branchlets furnished at the base on both sides with a spinescent 

 stipule ; leaves apparently wanting or very deciduous ; flower-buds 

 green outside, greenish-yellow inside ; calyx-lobes 5, unequal or some- 

 times equal, ovate, acute. In sandy deserts between Porto de 

 Pinda and Banza de Caroca, S. Lat. 16°, abundant ; not yet in full 

 flower, beginning of Sept. 1859. Called by the negroes " Nara," 

 " M-nara," or " Naras." No. 806. 



Namaqua Land. — Collected by A. B. Wollaston. Coll. Carp. 602. 



