832 xcvi. vERBENACE^. \^Premna 



20 to 35 ft. high, 1 to 2^ ft. in diameter at the base, where it usually 

 divides into 3 or 4 stout tortuous trunks one or two of which are 

 straighter and stricter, with the habit of Catalpa hignonioides Walt., 

 glabrous throughout except the slightly puberulous inflorescence; wood 

 light, durable and resonant, adapted for the manufacture of various 

 musical instruments, as for instance the marimbas, and for drum- 

 sticks ; branches pale, lenticellate, subterete ; branchlets obtusely 

 angular, furrowed ; leaves ternate or opposite, broadly ovate or oval, 

 usually cuspidate at the apex and wedgeshaped at the base, papery, 

 somewhat glossy, pale yellowish green (in the dry state), entire or 

 undulate-subrepand on the very narrowly revolute margin, ^\ to 5 in. 

 long by 2 to 3^ in. broad ; lateral veins about 6 or 7 on each side of 

 the midrib ; petioles H to 3^ in. long, rigid, very brittle at the base 

 where they are jointed to the branchlets ; panicles of the numerous 

 white flovv^ers terminal, very large, pyramidal or thyrsoid, divaricately 

 branched, about a foot long and nearly as broad ; common peduncle 

 about 3 in. long, deeply furrowed, robust ; ultimate pedicels very 

 short ; bracteoles subulate or minute ; flowers -^-^j in. long ; calyx 

 campanulate-oblong, -i- in. long, subtruncate, indistinctly bilobed ,- 

 corolla-tube -^^j to J^- in. long ; limb 4-lobed, somewhat oblique ; throat 

 hairy ; stamens 4, subdidynamous, inserted on the corolla-throat, 

 glabrous, scarcely exserted ; style ^^ in. long, glabrous, with two short 

 spreading branches at the apex ; fruit of a fine bluish colour, as large 

 as a juniper berry. In forests and palm groves in the Sobatos of 

 Calanga, Quilombo, Bango, etc., plentiful ; fl. Jan., fr. March 1855. 

 Nos. 5639, 5724. At Sange ; fr. March 1856. Coll. Carp. 843. 



It occurs also in the districts of Cazengo and Ambaca. See Welw. 

 Synopse Explic. p. 15, n. 36 (1862). The wood is also used for 

 internal doors, benches, etc. The local name is " Pad Mungongue "^ 

 or " Mugongue." 



2. P. polita Hiern, sp. n. 



A shrub, 4 to 6 ft. high ; branches elongated, puberulous or 

 nearly glabrate, lenticellate, subterete, subsarmentose, leafy; 

 branchlets patent, often abbreviated or brachiate ; leaves oval 

 or ovate, acuminate and apiculate at the apex, obtuse or rounded 

 at the 3- to 5-nerved base, thinly coriaceous, minutely glandular, 

 deep green above, paler beneath, nearly glabrous or slightly 

 puberulous, somewhat glossy, entire or subrepand on the 

 narrowly revolute margin, opposite, spreading, 2 to 3 in. long 

 by t to 1 in. broad or rather larger ; venation rather slender ; 

 petioles ^ to 4 i^- lo^g> puberulous ; inflorescence terminal, 

 umbellate-corymbose, 2 to 3 in. in diameter, shortly pedunculate, 

 puberulous, divaricately branched, rather dense ; ultimate pedicels 

 short, bracteolate ; primary or sub-primary branches of the cymes 

 umbellate, bracteate at the base; bracts sublinear, about \ in. 

 long ; bracteoles smaller ; flowers numerous, about \ in. long ; 

 calyx yV in. long, campanulate, glandular- puberulous, shortly 

 and unequally 5-lobed, the teeth obtuse ; corolla shortly tubular 

 glandular-puberulous outside, shaggy inside about the throat, the 

 lobes rather small ; stamens sub-didynamous, glabrous ; filaments 

 short, inserted at the corolla- throat ; style slender, shortly 

 exserted, with 2 short spreading branches; fruit spheroidal, 

 rounded at the apex, minutely glandular-puberulous, marked 



