SB2 cxxviii. GNETACEiE (Pearson). [Gnetum. 



li-2 in. long ; internode 2| lin. long ; cupule f lin. long ; envelope 

 2-leaved, J lin. long ; anthers 2, hardly exserted from the envelope 

 during flowering. Female spikes lateral or terminal, shortly ped- 

 unculate, usually f-1 in. long, with 6 nodes, each bearing a whorl 

 of 3 perfect female florets. Ripe seed not seen. — Pearson in Ann. 

 Bot. xxvi. 603-620, t. Ix. fig. I, c & d {S spike). 



Upper Guinea. Cameroons : near Abo, Yaunde, Zenker, 522 ; Johann- 

 Albrechtehohe, Staudt, 543 ! and vidthout precise locality, Zenker in Herb. Bolus ! 



3. WELWITSCHIA, Hook. f. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. iii. 418- 



Dioecious. Male (pseudohermaphrodite) floret : Envelope of 2 im- 

 bricating whorU ; outer whorl of two laterally placed free boat-shaped 

 keeled scales ; inner of 2 median broadly ovate or subrotund keel-less 

 scales, connate at the base ; stamens 6, exserted ; filaments connate 

 in a very short tube at the base ; anthers somewhat 3-lobed when 

 mature, 3-celled, dehiscing by 3 slits from the summit; pollen 

 ellipsoid, slightly coherent in irregular masses ; ovule solitary, 

 terminal, erect, orthotropous, imperfect, with the single integument 

 produced into a tubular micropyle, sharply bent near the middle, 

 expanding at the tip in an exserted glandular-papillose stigmatiform 

 disc. Female flower : Utricle of 2 laterally placed connate leaves, 

 bottle-shaped, contracted at the throat, compressed from back 

 to front, with 2 lateral membranous wing-like expansions from the 

 midribs ; ovule solitary, terminal, erect, orthotropous, perfect, with 

 the single integument produced into a straight micropylar tube 

 through the mouth of the utricle ; micropylar tube irregularly labiate 

 or fimbriate, but not expanded at the apex. Seed flattened, closely 

 invested by the winged utricle ; endosperm starchy, wedge-shaped 

 below, retuse above, supporting the withered nuceUar cap {2)eri- 

 sperm) ; radicle erect ; cotyledons 2, rarely 3, narrow-linear ; 

 suspensor long, coiled, persistent. — -Plant body {hypocotyl) woody, 

 covered by thick corrugated cork, sometimes intricately fused 

 with other individuals, when injured exuding a copious gummy 

 secretion which congeals in alcohol, broadly obconic or turbinate, 

 concave on tho top, more or less circular or elliptic in horizontal 

 section, rising J-1 ft. above the ground, 1-3 ft. in diam. at the top. 

 Epicotyl reduced to 2 leaf-bearing grooves and floriferous cushions 

 forming a raised rim round the top of the hypocotyl interrupted at 

 the ends of the longer diameter and a depressed and early arrested 

 stem apex, at length buried beneath 2 coalescent corky expansions 

 (" lateral cones ") overlying the concave summit of the hypocotyl, 

 developed from buds in the axils of the cotyledons. Tap-root greatly 

 elongated, unbranched above, at length very slender, branched and 

 brittle. Leaves 2, rarely 3, each inserted in an epicotylar groove 



