406 LXiii. cucuRBiTACE/E. [Gero'cirdanthus 



the semicircular connective and furnished with an empty subulate 

 appendage ; anthers 1-celled, dehiscing longitudinally ; connective 

 externally marginal ; ovary rudimentary, scarcely conspicuous, repre- 

 sented only by a central style. In thickets at the skirts of the forest 

 of Mata de Pungo, sporadic : male fl. April 1857. No. 861. 



LXIV. BEGONIACE^. 



A species of the section Mezierea of Begonia grows at the banks 

 of streams in the dense forests of the mountainous region of 

 Angola, and a second species of the genus belonging to the section 

 Rostrobegonia is met with in moist and shady hollows within the 

 fortress lines of Pungo Andongo. Welwitsch's discovery of these 

 plants placed beyond doubt the existence of the family in tropical 

 Africa. See Welwitsch in Journ. Linn. Soc. iii. pp. 151, 154 

 (1859), and Apont. p. 556, n. 130. 



1. BEGONIA Tourn., L. ; Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. PI. i. p. 841. 



1. B. oxyloba Welw. ex Hook. f. in Oliv. Fl. Trop. Afr. ii. p. 

 573 ; Warb. in Engl. Bot. Jahrb. xxii. p. 38 (1895). 



GoLUNGO Alto. — Stems cylindrical, rosy, brittle, 1 to 2 ft. high, 

 ascending from the thick half-subterranean rootstock, which is filled 

 with a watery juice ; flowers from rosy to reddish ; perianth-segments 

 whitish-rosy, reniform-orbicular, pervaded with longitudinal purplish 

 nerves running from the base towards the margin ; anthers yellow ; 

 ovary conical-ellipsoidal, obtusely trigonous, marked on the sides and 

 angles with a purplish line ; styles 3, short, cyhndrical, soon divided 

 into yellow, very viscid, hippocrepif orm-bif urcate stigmas. In primitive 

 forests along streams in Mata de Quisucftlo in Sobato de Bango, in 

 very shady places, sparingly; fl. beginning of Jan. : very scarce fr. 

 March 1856 ; without fl. 8 Sept. 1855 and May 185G : fl, and fr. end 

 of May 1856. No. 875. 



2. B. rostrata Welw. ex Hook, f., I.e., p. 578. 

 Diploclinmm (sp.), Welw. in Journ. Linn. Soc. iii. p. 154 (1859), 



and Apont. p. 556 sub n. 130 {Diplodiniimi). 



Pungo Andongo. — An annual tender herb, 1 to 1^ ft. high : stem 

 erect, cylindrical, succulent, smooth, blood-red or sometimes purple, 

 nodose-jointed : leaves highly glossy, bright-green, and scattered with 

 long thin white hairs above, paler beneath ; petiole terete, blood-red, 

 girt at the insertion of the leaf -blade with long approximated cilia ; 

 flowers small, pale-rosy : perianth-segments more or less ovate, those 

 of the male flowers nearly always larger than those of the female, 

 usually 5 (4 regular and the fifth much smaller than the four) in the 

 female flower ; filaments not very short, free, abruptly terminating in 

 the clavate connective, to the opposite sides of which the cells of the 

 anther longitudinally adhere but do not reach either its top or bottom ; 

 pollen whitish ; stigmas velvety, horseshoe-shaped or lyrate ; capsule 

 unequally 3-winged, two wings equal, the third acutely narrowed into 

 a long flattened beak. In the clefts and caverns of the most elevated 

 rocks along streams, chiefly in shady damp situations, abundant, but 

 restricted to particular spots : at Tunda-Quilombo within the fortress ; 

 fl. Feb. 1857 ; fl. and young fr. March and April 1857 ; fr. Oct. and 



