Leptonychia.l xxvi. sterculiace^ (masters). 239 



Upper Guinea. Fernando Po, Mann ! Barter ! Ainbas Bay, Mann ! 

 Lower Guinea. Angola, Dr. Welwitsch ! 



Dr. ^Velv\itsch's specimcos enable me to give the characters of the fruit hitherto uude- 

 scribed. 



2. L. lanceolata, Mad. A shrub 12-15 ft. liigh, with glabrou8 

 branches. Leafstalks glabrous, 1 in. in lenpjth, smooth. Leaves leatlierv, 

 lanceobte, acuminate, entire, tapering at the base, 1-costate, arcuate-venose, 

 8-12 in. long, 3-4 in. wide. Sepals 4, linear-lanceolate. Petals villose. 

 Ovary villose, 4-celled. Style cylindrical, longer than the stamens. 



Upper Guinea. Fernando Po, Mann ! 



I have only examined fragments of flowers of this species, the i^tamiiial arrangements of 

 which, however, were such as to leave no doubt that the plant belongs to this genus. U 

 may possibly be a mere variety of the preceding. 



14. BUETTNERIA, Linn. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. i. 225. 



Calyx 5-cleft. Petals concave at the base ; apex 2-lobed, inflexed, adnate 

 to the tube of the stamens, prolonged at the back into a long, simple or 3- 

 fid appendage. Staminal tube with solitary anthers between tiie barren 

 lobes. Antliers sessile or on short stalks, 2-3-celled ; cells parallel. Ovary 

 sessile, 5-celled with 2 ovules in each cell. Style slightly 5-cleft at the 

 apex. Capsule globose. Carpels seceding septicidally, each 2-valved, covered 

 with stout spines at the back and 1-seeded. Seed solitary, ascending, ex- 

 albuminous. Cotyh^dons convolute around the radicle. — Undershrubs or 

 climbing shrubs, often spiny. Flowers small, purplish, stalked, umbellate or 

 cymose. 



A genus including between 40 and 50 species, natives of tropical Asia and .\mcrica. The 

 only species known in tropical Africa, and that imperfectly, is the one a description of 

 which is here given. 



1. B. africana. Mast. A tree with pubemlous branches. Leaves 

 roumlish, cordate-ovate, acute, denticulate, palmately 5-nerved, smooth, 5 6 

 in. long, 4-5 in. wide. Leafstalks shorter than the leaves. Stipules siibu- 

 late. Flowers. . . . Capsule subglobose, the size of a walnut, septicidally 

 3-57valved ; valves muricate. 



Ziower Guinea. Congo, Srtrith ! 



Imperfect specimens of this plant were collected by Smith, and do not appear to have 

 been met with by any other collector. The plant does not appear to be mentioned in 

 Brown's Appendix to Tuckey's Congo. 



Among the specimens collected by Dr. Kirk in the Zambesi valley (Batoka) arc fragmenti 

 of a tree with separate fruits, probably Sterculiarcous, but in too iinpirfert a state to be re- 

 ferred with certainty to this family. The branches are purplish, sprinkled with black d.it». 

 Petioles cylindrical, thickened at the apex and at the base. L<'aves leathery, cordate, paimatrly 

 5-lobed ; lobes oblong, entire, sinuses obtuse, surface smooth. Peduncle, as it seems, tcrniinnl, 

 marked with annular cicatrices. Thalamus or gyuophore ? setose at apex. ('Hr|Hls 4, 

 samaroid, obliquely ovoid, horny at the base, indehiscent, 1-celk-d, 1 -seeded, prolonged into 

 a long membranous entire wing,' 1-2 in. long. Albumen apparently horny. 



