Triuwfttta.'] xxvii. xruACE^ (masters). 257 



bright yellow. Stamens 10-15. Fruit glol)Ose, the size of a Inrge pea, 4-6- 

 valved ; valves studded with hooked, pilose prickles. — T. angulata. Lam. Diet, 

 iii. 421. T. cordifolia, Guill. et Perr. Fl. Seneg. '\. 92. t. 18. T. longueta, 

 Guill. et Perr. 1. c. i. 92. 



Upper Guinea. Fernando Po, Barter ! Gambia, Boteler ! Lagos, Barter! Abbeo- 

 kuta, Irving ! Sierra Leone, Heudelotl 



Lio^er Guinea. Angola, Dr. Welwitsch ! 



A widely distributed tropical weed, some of whose varieties api)roach those of T. rhom- 

 boidea, but have larger fruit. Guillemin and Perrottet's T. longiseta only differs in the 

 length of the prickles, the 6-valved fruit being, as far as I have seen, an'ciccptional oc- 

 currence. 



7. T. pilosa, i^oM ; DC. Prod. i. 506. Herbaceous or shrubby, 4-5 

 ft. high, more or less densely covered with yellowish villi. Leaves ou short 

 villose stalks, roundish or oblong, subcordate, obscurely 3-lobed, lobes 

 deltoid, acute, irregularly serrate, villose above, densely lomentose below ; 

 4-5 in. long, 3-4 in. wide. Flowers large, nearly 1 Iw. in length, arranged 

 in terminal clusters. Sepals linear-oblong, apiculate. Petals half the length 

 of the sepals, ciliate at the edge of the claw. Stamens 12. Disk lobed, 

 ciliated at the margins. Fruit globose, the size of a cherry, 4-valved ; valves 

 villose, studded with numerous long, shaggy, subulate, hooked prickles. 



Nile I«and. Abyssinia, Roth ! 



Itower Guinea. Angola, Dr. Welwitsch ! 



The plant occurs also in India, and is variable in the shape of the leaves and in the degree 

 of hairiness. De CandoUe erroneously describes it as opetalous, and as having indchiscent 

 fruit. 



8. T. rhomboidea, Jacq. ; DC. Prod. i. 507. Herbaceous or shrubby, 

 glabrous, villose, stellate-pilose or velvety. Stalks of lower leaves nearly as 

 long as the blades. Leaves polymorphous, often differing much ou the same 

 specimen, ovate, cordate or rhomboid at the base, acute or somewhat 3-lobed 

 at the apex, palmately 3-5-7-nerved', unequally serrate ; the lower serratures 

 sometimes reflexed and glandular ; surfaces exceedingly variable in regard to 

 degree of pubescence. Flowers numerous, in cymose clusters along the sides 

 and ends of the branches. Pedicels short. Flower-buds oblong or some- 

 what clavate, apiculate. Sepals hispid or downy, oblong, apiculate. Petals 

 yellow, oblong, tapering at the base. Stamens 10-15. Capsules globose, 

 the size of a small pea, albido-tcmentose, 3-5-valved ; valves covered with 

 smooth, hooked, conical prickles. — T. vtlutina, Vahl, Symb. iii. 62. T. glan- 

 dulosa, Lam. Diet. iii. 421. T. trilocularia, Guill. et Perr. Fl. Seneg. 

 i. 93. T. Vahlii, Poir. Diet. Suppl. iii. 300. T. mollis, Schum. et Thonn. 

 PI. Guin. 239. T. Thonningiana, DC. PI. Rar. Gen. 64. ? T. amjulatu. 

 Hook. f. in *F1. Nigrit. 235, nee Lam. T. trilocularis, Koxb. Fl. Ind., fide 

 Hook. f. in Fl. Nigrit. 235. T. eriophlebia, Hook. f. Fl. iNigrit. 235. 



Widely distributed throughout tropical Africa, whence specimens have been received from 

 almost every collector. It is also a native of the West Indies, Arabia, East Indie*, 

 etc. The plant is excessively variable, now apparently an annual, at other times a rigid 

 branehing undershrub. Leaves of almost every possible size, form, and quality of pubes- 

 cence, now glabrous or nearly so, pilose, hispid, tonientose, sometimes covered with 

 cream-coloured tomentum along the nerves of the leaf principally {T. eriophlebia, Hook, f.), 

 at other times densely covered with thick tomentum. Hence it is not to be wondered at 



VOL. I. K 



