964 cxv. EUPHORBiACE^. [JJccjMca 



involucre composed of several segments, coroUiform, yellowish; several 

 male flowers densely clustered about a fleshy stalk ; bracteoles 

 membranous, denticulate ; stamens 4 to 6 ; anthers resembling those 

 of Urticaceas, inserted around a fleshy bilobed column by means of the 

 flattened filaments. In the less dense rather dry forests between 

 Lopollo and the river Monino, sporadic and rather rare, in company 

 with species of Combretacege (cf. Comhretum jJsidioides Welw. herb. 

 no. 4319) and Leucadendron ; male fl. Feb. 1860. No. 453. A tree, 

 about 15 ft. high, not flowering at the end of March 1860, in the same 

 locality as the last No. ; apparently the same species, although the 

 leaves do not narrow so gradually towards the base. No. 454. A tree 

 of 15 to 25 ft. or in thickets and secondary woods 8 to 10 ft. high ; 

 trunk attaining nearly a foot, usually about 6 in. in diameter, with a 

 dense head ; the spreading branches and branchlets scattered or 

 opposite, tortuous, divaricate, somewhat cinereous, tuberculate with 

 the large scars of fallen leaves ; leaves alternate, crowded at the tops 

 of the branchlets, elliptical, very hard- coriaceous, penninerved, marked 

 beneath with the very thick midrib and prominent acutely edged 

 lateral nerves, whitish-lepidote, and with somewhat crisp hairs at the 

 transverse veins, pale green above but little glossy and marked with 

 the impressed nerves ; petioles § to ^ in. long, articulate to the branch- 

 lets ; flowers typically dioecious, from whitish to pale yellow, the 

 female ones as large as a moderate-sized pea, solitary in the axils of the 

 leaves, subsessile or very shortly pedunculate ; peduncles cinnamon- 

 tomentose ; calyx tetraphyllous, the segments opposite, the outer ones 

 much the smaller, bracteole-like and tomentose, the inner ones sub- 

 coroUine and tomentose on the keel ; petals 5 to 7 or rarely 8, inserted 

 on a somewhat fleshy torus, some opposite to the calyx-segments, 

 others alternate to them, obovate-elliptical, concave, connivent during 

 the flowering, whitish or yellowish, soon turning dusky and deciduous, 

 imbricate in the bud, unequal in size and shape ; disk fleshy, glandular, 

 shallowly cupuliform, 6- or 7-lobed, surrounding the base of the ovary; 

 ovary sessile, large, globose-ellipsoidal, obtusely angular, densely 

 tomentose, 4-celled ; the cells bi-ovulate ; the ovules collateral, 

 pendulous from the top of the central angle of the columnar placenta, 

 elongated ; stigma sessile, very large, radiately 4-lobed ; the lobes 

 yellow, somewhat fleshy, flabellate in outline, digitately multifid, 

 covering the whole of the ovary in the bud, persistent ; fruit 

 ellipsoidal, 6-ribbed, as large as a full-sized olive, 3-celled, 

 monospermous ; endocarp juicy-fleshy, bitter to the taste like pitch, 

 reddish. In thin rather dry forests, at an elevation of 5000 to 5500 ft., 

 between Lopollo and the great lake of Ivantala, chiefly at No Monino, 

 rather rare, in company with species of Acacia (cf. A. rohusta Burch.; 

 Welw. herb. no. 1833), Combretaceae (cf. Comhretum pddioldes Welw. 

 herb. no. 4379), Myrtaceae (cf. Eugenia guineensis., var. huillensis ; 

 Welw. herb. no. 4403), and Proteacete ; male fl. 1 March 1860, female 

 fl. 13 March, end of March and 12 April 1860, ripe fr. 10 May 1860. 

 No. 455. A tree with large alternate coriaceous leaves. In forests 

 near Lopollo ; submature fr. April 1860, Coll. Carp. 241. 



The sap is thin and whitish at first, but soon coagulates and turns 

 yellow-dusky and glossy like resin ; the fruit is said to be edible, but 

 this statement is very doubtful. The native name is " N-bulla." 

 Welwitsch collected his specimens and hastily examined them during 

 the Monano war ; he added that the calyx-segments pass gradually 

 into the petals so that it becomes very difficult to decide precisely 

 what belongs to the calyx and what to the corolla ; only the two 



