ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW. 
’ | BULLETIN 
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION. 
XVI.—DIONCOPHYLLUM. 
T. A. Spracue. 3 
The remarkable climbing shrub described by Baillon in 1890 
under the name Dioncophyllum Tholleni* was originally dis- 
: covered by M. Thollon in the Niavi district, French Congo, f 
and was not found again until 1914, when flowerless shoots of 
re it were collected by Mr. N. W. Thomas in Sierra Leone, 1800 
: miles away. These shoots long defied classification, and were 
g only identified through the writer’s attention being arrested 
accidentally by the apt generic name Dioncopkyllum, which at 
once recalled the peculiar two-hooked leaves. 
the following descriptiont and figure are being published in 
the hope that further material of Dioncophyllum may be received 
tom forestry Officers or others interested in West African 
botany. Flowering shoots, fruits and ripe seeds are more 
Dioncophyilum Thoiloni, Baillon.—A climbing soft-wooded 
Tub, apparently glabrous to the naked eye, but bearing 
humerous minute rust-coloured peltate scales, especially on the 
>? 
road), each of which has a pair of strong revolute 
hooks at its apex, separated from the leaf-blade by a short stalk. 
In the axils of these hooked leaves are borne much contracted 
youn 
terete, slightly glossy, bearing small leaves (2-31 in. long 
n . 
Mm the fresh leaf. The inflorescence is carried up the shoot, 
and does not arise from a leaf axil but laterally, or almost 
*Pposite a leaf. It is a loose irregularly branched cyme, with- 
‘thither bracts or bracteoles. Flowers hypogynous. Calyx 
eae? S-angled, 5-toothed. Petals, 5, contorted. Stamens 
 * Ball Soc. Linn. Par. vol ii. p. 870 
: . . . vol. ii. p. 870. 
T Engl. Jahrb. vol. x1. p. 486 (1908). 
Mr Th © description of the vegetative parts has been drawn up from 
from Baile” Specimens, whilst that of the inflorescence and flowers is taken 
88) We. 71-708, 1,295, 5/lé. J.T. &8., Ltd. G14, 
