131 
terminal appendage (see page 142, figs 8, 10, 12). In several 
species the leaf-rhachis is more or less enlarged below the insertion 
of the leaflets sometimes forming wings or definite stipel-like 
appendages, 
Inflorescence.—This is always terminal and eae a sete 
or a spiciform raceme; the bracts are usually caduc 
Bracteoles. —Constantly two in number, and are he's a " -lipped 
valvate calyx, in which respect they closely resemble those in 
the allied genus Berlinia. Calyx—Composed of usually 5 free 
and often very minute ciliate sepals, sometimes reduced to one 
or none (B. Gairdnerae and B. Bakeriana). Petals -—Entirely 
wanting or represented by very small scale-like bodies (B. spicae- 
formis). The absence of petals distinguishes the genus from 
Berlinia, from which Brachystegia would appear to be derived. 
Stamens. —United at the base only or into a fairly long tube. 
Ovary.—Usually stipitate, rarely sessile, hirsute as far as known; 
ovules few. Legume.—Woody, oblong, truncate at the apex, 
opening with some force, the valves twisting in the process. 
Seeds —Much-compressed, hard, more or less orbicular. 
Tur Economic VALUE OF THE BRACHYSTEGIAS. 
The great central plateau of southern tropical Africa is 
mainly covered with shadeless dry Savannah Forest, composed 
largely of leguminose trees. Among these the Brachystegias 
occupy a prominent place; indeed they form such characteristic, 
and in places dominant, features of the forest over thousands 
of square miles of country extending from the Limpopo-Zambesi 
Watershed to the Katanga Plateau at the head-waters of the 
Congo River, and from Nyasaland to the ae Highlands, 
that this plant-formation may well be termed “ Brach, 
Forest.” The general features of this type of Sela Forest 
are indicated in the photograph reproduced on Plate IT, fig. 1. 
The several species of Brachystegia are more or less gregarious, 
one or other being the most common tree in particular localities. 
In Portuguese East Africa, also, Sim(*#) notes that there is in 
many places an almost pure forest of one respond Pn dasaen 
B. Bragaei) of which “ the re-growth is excellent” and the tree 
is inclined to monopolize suitable districts. In the mChopes 
country, where extensive cultivation was abandoned about 1877, 
there was in 1909 a dense forest of seedling Brachystegias, 
6 to 8 m. high, and 15 cm. in diameter, ready for the first thinning. 
The quantity of forest products available over such a vast 
area of country, and where the species are so plentiful, is enormous, 
and this fact so impressed the traveller in Rhodesia and the 
Katanga Province, that extensive enquiries were made as to 
Az 
