12 LXXXY. GENTIANEE. | Swertia 
Huitia.—aA slender, erect, very bitter, annual herb, with the habit 
of Ophelia ; stem usually branched, subangular, somewhat swelled at 
the nodes, about a foot high ; leaves opposite, lanceolate-linear, semi- 
amplexicaul, 1-nerved, obtusely keeled beneath, erect, bright green as 
well as the stem and branches, the upper ones gradually narrower ; 
flowers corymbose-paniculate, numerous, strongly resembling those of 
a Stellaria ; calyx 5-partite; the segments lanceolate, narrow, flat, 
1-nerved, cuspidate ; corolla rotate, deeply 5-lobed ; the lobes ovate- 
oblong, milk-white outside, streaked with purple lines inside, twice as 
long as the calyx, glandular a little above the base with greenish 
geminate depressions which have long cilia at their edges ; stamens 5, 
inserted on the very short tube of the corolla ; filaments a little 
widened and almost cohering in a ring at the base ; anthers in the 
living state purple, turning green in drying, typically introrse, after 
the flowering extrorse, not twisted ; ovary unilocular, cylindrical, sub- 
compressed ; stigma sessile, broadly bilabiate, terminal, large ; the lips 
diverging at the time of the flower, at length somewhat reflected 
at the margin; ovules at both sides of the sutures, very numerous, 
horizontal; placentas sutural, geminate, distinct, spongy-fleshy ; 
capsule unilocular, compressed-cylindrical, bivalved, obtuse ; seeds 
numerous, comparatively large for the order, globose, densely tuber- 
culate ; the tubercles minute, hemispherical, smooth, rather shining. 
In somewhat sandy damp wooded pastures in Morro de Lopollo, 
between 5200 and 5600 ft. alt., very plentiful; fl. and fr. beginning 
of April and 4 May 1860. No. 1515. At Humpata; fl. and fr. May 
1860. CoLu. Carp. 51. 
All the parts of this plant are very bitter ; the natives, however, do 
not make any use of it, nor do they give a special name to it; but 
Welwitsch considered it quite equal or even superior in its medicinal 
qualities to the Fel da terra of Portugal, that is, Centawrium majus 
(Erythrea major Hoftm. & Link), and capable of affording a substitute 
for Gentiana lutea L. 
LXXXVI. BORAGINE. 
1. CORDIA Plum., L.; Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. Pl. ii. p. 838. 
The wood which the negroes of Africa, in the most diverse districts 
and various tribes, make use of for procuring fire by means of rubbing 
sticks together, belongs to the genus Cordia. Thus, in Golungo Alto 
and around Ambriz, in Songo and in the interior of Loanda, on the 
river Cuanzo and likewise in Benguella, when desirous of making a 
fire, the negroes nearly everywhere pointed out to Welwitsch trees of 
this genus as those best adapted for the purpose. 
1. ©. rubra Hochst. in Pl. Schimp. Abyss. iii, n. 1582 (Uw, 
1844) and ex A. Rich. Fl. Abyss. ii. p. 82 (1851). 
Barra DE DaNnpE and Loanpa.—A small tree, 8 or rarely 12 ft. 
high, usually in the form of a shrub, but when well developed always 
tree-like, with a single slender trunk and a dilated head ; leaves 
resembling those of an alder, pallid green, very rough above, more 
or less softly shaggy beneath ; flowers milk-white or yellow-whitish ; 
drupe baccate, ovoid-globose, sordidly cinnabar-red or orange-scarlet, 
very viscid, fleshy, monopyrenous, mucronate with the remains of the 
style, seated on the 5- to 7-toothed calyx ; putamen very hard, bony, 
4-celled or rarely by abortion 3- or 2-celled, quadrangular-pyramidal, 
truncate at the apex ; the seeds solitary in the cells. In rough hilly 
