Melanthera| LXXI. COMPOSIT. 583 
5. M. cuanzensis Hiern, sp. n. 
A perennial herb; stem 2 to 4 ft. high, mostly decumbent on 
neighbouring shrubs, subscandent, pallid, 4-angular, furrowed, 
puberulous ; branches few, lax, opposite, scattered with whitish 
short scurfy hairs and a few short strigulose hairs intermixed, 
scarcely scabrid ; leaves opposite, spreading, lance-shaped, rather 
obtuse and minutely mucronate at the apex, broadly cordate or 
subreniform at the base, membranous but rather rigid, rather 
distantly crenulate-denticulate, scabrid scattered with short 
whitish strigulose hairs and deep green above, rather softly 
strigulose paler and reticulate beneath, 1} to 5} in. long by 2 to 
1 in. broad or rather longer; petiole } to 1 in. long, strigulose 
with short whitish hairs, scarcely scabrid ; capitula hemispherical, 
radiate, heterogamous, homochromous, about 2 in. long, opposite 
or alternate, axillary or terminal, on peduncles 3 to 6 in. long ; 
involucral scales pauciseriate, imbricate, free to the base, ovate 
pointed and strigose on the back or the innermost ones oblong 
and acuminate, ciliate, flat, the outermost ones rather the 
shortest ; flowers wholly golden-yellow; ray-florets about { in. 
long, uniseriate, female, fertile, subtended by the innermost 
scales of the involucre, ligulate; the ligule oblong, $ in. long, 
marked with several parallel longitudinal nerves, bifid at the 
apex, glabrous above, pilose along the nerves beneath ; style bifid ; 
the ovary compressed-subquadrangular, puberulous along the 
lateral edges, otherwise glabrous or minutely puberulous obovate, 
zs in. long, subtruncate at the apex, tipped with about ten 
scabrid somewhat unequal erect pale aristee which arise from a 
ring at the apex smaller than the breadth of the ovary; disk- 
florets multiseriate, tubular, regular, + in. long, hermaphrodite ; 
the corolla + in. long, puberulous outside, with 5 short ovate- 
deltoid lobes; the anthers dusky, with pale ovate appendages at 
the apex, ecaudate and obtuse at the base; style-branches rather 
short, somewhat compressed, with short pointed appendages at the 
apex; ovary ;4, in. long, compressed-quadrangular, oblanceolate, 
puberulous along the sides and around the apex, scattered with 
minute hairs or glabrous elsewhere, subtruncate at the apex, 
tipped with about 10 to 15 unequal scabrid pale ariste more 
or less equalling the ovary in length and arising around or 
from the apex of the ovary; achenes obversely pyramidal, 
slightly compressed, angular, glabrate except the somewhat 
rounded or subtruncate apex, 4; in. long; pappus consisting 
of several erect pallid scabrid more or less deciduous aristz 
which equal or exceed the achene in length and arise about a 
thickened ring narrower than the whole achene; receptacle 
convex, furnished with obovate-acuminate scabrid-ciliolate folded 
scales which embrace the disk-florets and are marked with 
parallel longitudinal lines. 
_ Punco AnpDonco.—By wooded thickets along the right bank of the 
river Cuanza ; fl. and fr. Dec. 1856. No. 3554. 
