3 
TroprcaL West Arrica: Spanish Guinea; Munda, Sibange, 
Soyaux, 238. 
The characters of the fruit of R. Soyauzii afford an opportunity of 
supplementing the description of the genus Rhaphidanthe if it were 
certain that the genus could be maintained. This, however, is in 
any case questionable; if we accept the genus Diospyros as circum- 
scribed by Hiern in his monograph and by Giircke in the Pflanzen- 
familien, it is indeed inadmissible, because there is no character left 
ourselves led to the section Noltia, the basis of which is N. tricolor, 
Schum. & Thonn., a plant known only from the Gold Coast, and, 
imperfect as our acquaintance with that species is, there seems little 
doubt that Rhaphidanthe approaches the Gold Coast plant more nearly 
than it does any other species of Diospyros. But Noltia is a rather 
heterogeneous group and may, like the genus Diospyros itself, have 
to be revised and readjusted. Such a readjustment is, however, 
beyond the scope of the present note, which has as its aim the bringing - 
together all that is known at present regarding Rhaphidanthe.— 
O. Starr. 
A. RHAPHIDANTHE OBLIQUIFOLIA g. Fic. 1, bud of male flower ; 2, corolla 
of male flower; 3 and 4, stamens. All enlar; ed. 
B. DANTHE Soyauxm 92. Fic. 5, fruit seen from the base; 6 and 7, 
seeds; 8, transverse sec f aseed: 9, longitudinal section of a seed. All 
enlarged except 6, which is of natural size. 
