310 XXXIV. siMARXJBE^ (oliver). \_Brucea. 



gate, pilose-tomentose spikes 4-10 in. long, from the axils of the upper- 

 most leaves ; very, small, sessile or subsessile, clustered in the axils of minute 

 bracts. Female flowers apparently pedicellate. Drupes about ^ in. long. — 

 B. ferruginea, L'Her. Stirp. Nov. t. 10. 



Upper Guinea. Camaroous mountain, 7-SOOO ft., Mann ! 

 Nile Iiaud. Abyssinia, Schimper ! (with oblong leaflets) Piowden ! 



2. B. macrophylla, Oliv. A small tree of 10-15 ft. Leaves about 

 3 ft. ; leaflets in about 4-6 pairs, ample, membranous, opposite, petiolulate, 

 ovate-oblong or broadly oblong-elliptical, acute or acuminate, entire or undu- 

 late, early nearly or quite glabrous, or the midrib minutely pubescent, 6-8 

 in. long, 2|— 4 in. broad; petiolules \ in.; rachis terete, shortly pilose at 

 first. Female flowers small, red, in elongate, narrow, rusty-pubescent pa- 

 nicles of \-\\ ft. from the axils of the leaves of the terminal tufts. Lateral 

 branches of the panicle ^-3 in., spreading. Flowers subsessile or equalling 

 the pedicels. Petals ovate, entire or slightly toothed, a little exceeding the 

 sepals. Carpels cohering at the top of the ovaries. Styles spreadijig or re- 

 curved. Drupes obliquely ovate-oblong, wrinkled when dry. Seeds exalbu- 

 minous. 



Upper Guinea. Sierra Leone, Don ! Corisco island and Ambas Bay, Mann ! 



At first I was disposed to regard this plant as the Brucea paniculata of Lamarck, a 

 species briefly noticed, and without diagnosis, in the Encycl. (i. 472), but on reference to 

 Smeathmann's specimens in the Herbarium of the British Museum, I find this plant can 

 scarcely be regarded as belonging to the genus Brucea. I have only seen staminate flowers, 

 so that I am uncertain to which Natural Order to refer it. It may prove a Barseracea or 

 Anacardiacea near to Sdrindeia. It is at once to be distinguished from Brucea by its 

 minute calyx, three to four times shorter than the petals. So far as the material enables 

 me, it may be described: — Leaves 9-18 in., 9-11-foliolate ; leaflets coriaceous, oblong- 

 lanceolate or varying from ovate-lanceolate to oblong, rather obtusely acuminate, all except 

 the broadest more or less narrowed to the base, glabrous, 2-6 in. long, f-2 in. broad ; pe- 

 tiolules 2-*'3 lines. Panicles (of S A-) terminal or from the upper axils, many-flowered, 

 more or less pyramidal, often exceeding the leaves, thinly rusty-pubescent. Pedicels slender, 

 equalling the flower. Calyx minute, 4-lobed. Petals 4, ovate-elliptical, sessile, valvate in 

 aestivation. Stamens 4 with naked subulate filaments and ovate-elliptical dorsifixed anthers, 

 inserted around the 4-gonous pilose disk. — Sierra Leone, Smeatkmann ! West Africa, Don ! 

 (leaves only.) Brucea guineensis^ Don, Gen. Syst. i. 801, I take to be the same. 



3. KIRKIA, Oliv., gen. nov. 



Flowers hermaphrodite or polygamous. Calyx broad-based, 4-partite ; 

 segments ovate. Petals 4, oblong-lanceolate, much exceeding the calyx, at 

 length patent ; margins involute. Stamens 4, alternate with the petals, in^ 

 serted around a fleshy tetragonous disk ; filaments filiform, unappendaged, 

 glabrous ; anthers ovate-oblong, muticous, 2-celled, dehiscing longitudi- 

 nally, attached dorsally a little above the base. Ovary (very small) deeply 

 4-lobed, 4-celled, glabrous; styles distinct, very short; stigmas simple. 

 Ovules solitary (perhaps sometimes 2?),inseried in the inner angle, very 

 minute. Fruit dry, oblong, tetraquetrous, separating at length in 4 

 linear-oblong, glabrous, 1-seeded, indehiscent cocci, notched above, entire or 

 emarginate at the base, suspended by the apex from a central carpophore ; 

 epicarp thin; endocarp coriaceous or somewhat bony, fibrous in decay. 

 Seed cxalbumiiious ; testa papery. Cotyledons fleshy, linear-oblong, com- 



