Biodia] lxix. rubiace.e. 501 



45. DIODIA Gronov., L. ; Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. PI. ii. p. 143. 



1. D. maritima Thonn. ex Schum. in Dansk. Vidensk. Selsk. iii. 

 p. 95 (1828) ; Hiern in Oliv. Fl. Trop. Afr. iii. p. 231. 



LoANDA. — Rather fleshy throughout, glaucous-green, creeping a long 

 distance half buried in the sand of the sea-shore, throwing out slender 

 fibres from each node of the prostrate or creeping stem, growing quite 

 after the fashion of Arenaria inploides L. ; leaves beset with hyaline 

 papillae ; flowers white ; corolla segments narrowly ovate, rather obtuse 

 and fleshy ; the tube clothed near the bottom with rather long hairs ; 

 stamens falling short of the style ; filaments filiform, not subulate ; 

 stigma peltate-capitate, somewhat sulcate-bilobed, white ; fruit almost 

 ventricose-cylindrical. In sandy maritime places between Penedo 

 and Conceigao, rather rare ; half -ripe fr. and few fl., 25 May 1858. 

 No. 3217. 



Barra de Dande. — A prostrate suffrutescent herb ; leaves rough, 

 rather rigid, bright-green in the living state. At Praia between the 

 mouths of the rivers Dande and Bengo, sparingly and nearly always in 

 company with Ipomcua biloba Forsk. ; fl. and fr. Sept. 1858. No. 3216- 



Benguella.— Stems 6 to 8 ft. long, quadrangular, winged, purplish. 

 In sandy maritime places near the city ; fr. June 1859. No. 3218- 



2. D. scandens Swartz, Prodr. Ind. Occ. p. 30 (1788). 



D. breviseta Benth. in Hook. Niger Fl. p. 424 (1849); Hiern, I.e. 



GoLUNGO Alto. — A suffruticose herb ; stem branched from the 

 base ; branches long, sarmentose, climbing ; leaves rigid, scarcely 

 coriaceous ; stipules with setaceous teeth. In forests among the 

 mountains of Queta by the river Delamboa, very rare ; fr. end of May 

 and in June 1856. No. 3215. 



PuNGO Andongo. — At Catete ; a young plant in very young fl.-bud 

 Dec. 1856. Yery doubtfully referred here. No. 3251. 



3. D. flavescens Hiern, sp. n. 



A scabrid-pubescent perennial herb ; rootstock fleshy, woody, 

 thick, 3 to 5 in. deep, 1 to 1| in. in diameter, forming several 

 heads ; stems erect or ascending, simple or slightly branched near 

 the base, 8 to 16 in. high, sub-glabrate or puberulous and scarcely 

 angular below, scabrid-hirsute, lined and furrowed above, leafy 

 with very short internodes towards the apex ; internodes about 

 equalling the leaves near the middle of the stems ; leaves oval- 

 oblong, apiculate at the scarcely acute apex, a little narrowed at 

 the sessile or sub-sessile base, herbaceous, deep-green and roughly 

 scabrid above, yellowdsh-green and hispidulous-scabrid beneath, 

 ^ to 1|^ in. long by ^ to § in. broad ; margin rough, narrowly 

 revolute ; lateral veins about 3 on each side of the midrib, slender, 

 making a small angle with the midrib, depressed on the upperside 

 of the leaves; stipules adnate to the leaf-bases or short petioles, 

 giving off several reddish setae from a short truncate base, hairy 

 outside, glabrous and shining inside ; flowers axillary, pale- 

 yellowish, i in. long exclusive of the exserted stamens and style, 

 sessile or sub-sessile, a few or several together in small axillary 

 bracteolate clusters ; bi-acteoles lanceolate-subulate, shorter than 

 the calyx, ciliolate ; calyx ^ in. long, squamulose-puberulous ; the 



