Sfizolohmm.] xliv. legumixos^. 251 



GoLUNGO Alto. — A shrub, climbing to a great height, woody up to 

 a man's height, then herbaceous-sarmentose, armed in all parts except 

 the corolla with stinging hairs ; stems more or less twining, tenacious ; 

 branchlets slender, pendulous from the head of palms or other trees ; 

 flowers umbellate, rather fleshy, sulphur-greenish ; pods oblong, pendu- 

 lous, lamellate, tardily dehiscing, 5 to 7 in. long, 2 to 2^ in. broad, 

 compressed-concave ; sides very deeply and obliquely furrowed ; crests 

 rigid, interrupted in the middle : sutures deeply and broadly uni- 

 sulcate ; seeds 2 or 3, globose-compressed, black, thinly wrinkled, zoned 

 at four-fifths of their equatorial circuit with a linear umbilicus. A 

 very handsome species, one of the highest ornaments of the primitive 

 forests, on account of its remarkably silvery-glistening leaflets, with 

 rather long-pendulous cymes enveloped when young by very broad 

 oval obtuse bracts, tolerably distinct from all other species of Angola, 

 and highly noteworthy on account of the metamorphosis of the calyx, 

 at first cylindric-tubular, afterwards abbreviated-dilated. In the moist 

 very shady primitive forests of Sobato de Mussengue by the river 

 Delamboa, climbing on Bordao {Rapliia sp.) ; sparingly fl. Jan. and 

 Feb. 1855, fr. May, June and July 1856. No. 2239. Flowers cymosely 

 pseudo-umbellate, from yellow to greenish ; peduncles pendulous ; pods 

 with crowded broad vertically erect transverse plates dentate or erose 

 on their edge, and very deeply sulcate on each suture ; seeds orbicular, 

 quite black when ripe, with somewhat impressed points on their faces. 

 In the forests of Mussengue, near the river Delamboa ; fl. and ripe f r 

 Jan., Feb. and May 1856. Coll. Carp. 404. 



2. S. pruriens Medik.in Vorles. Churpf. Phys. Ges.ii.p. 399 (1787). 

 Mucuna pruriens DC. Prodr. ii. p. 405 (1825) ; Baker, I.e., p. 187 ; 

 Ficalho, PI. Uteis, p. 140 (1884). 



GoLUNGO Alto. — An undershrub, climbing far and wide, covered 

 all over, except the corolla, with stinging hairs, flowering and fruiting 

 usually in its first year, but nevertheless at length with the behaviour 

 underground of a perennial plant or, when living amongst reeds or tall 

 species of Amlropogon^ persisting with its stem shrubby at the base ; 

 flowers handsome, deep- (almost black-) blue or deep-violet-blue, 

 arranged on half -pendulous racemes ; bracts lanceolate, ^ to -f^ in. long, 

 long-acuminate, densely beset with long pilose hairs, deciduous ; calyx 

 yellowish-green ; upper lip ovate-lanceolate from a broad base ; lobes 

 of the lower lip lanceolate, the middle one longer than the others, all 

 much acuminate ; standard dark-purple, broadly ovate, scarcely cordate ; 

 wing-petals almost twice as long as the standard, dark-purple, spathu- 

 late, curved at the base, embracing the keel which is tinged with 

 violet-rose-colour ; pod pendulous, about 2^ to 3 in. long, linear, rather 

 compressed, furrowed on the faces along its whole length, dehiscing 

 in a sigmoid-curved manner, when young densely covered with very 

 rigid dark-purple pilose hairs, at length shining and golden-tawny, 

 always stinging badly as do also though in a less degree the hairs of the 

 stem and branches, causing pains which last for days and nights ; seeds 

 4 to 6, black, oval-ellipsoidal, ^ to J in. long, tumid ; umbilicus oblong- 

 linear, short for the genus. Native name " Quicuta," which collectively 

 is given to several species but mostly to this ; it is the most stinging of 

 the species observed in Angola. Remarkably frequent, in open woods, 

 in neglected spots of previous cultivation, and in rather dry reed-beds ; 

 also not uncommon at the bushy margins of primitive forests ; Serra de 

 Alto Queta, Sobato de Mussengue, Sange, etc. ; fl. at different parts of 

 the year according to soil and position, May 1855, end of March and 



