Balsamodendron.] xxxvi. BURSERACKiE (olivkk). 3J5 



oblong, valvate or with the sides slightly iinhrirate and tips irinirvfMl in spsti- 

 vation. Stamens 8, inserted on or outside the margin of a cupuliform disk, 

 alternately shorter. Ovary 2-3-celled, narrowed into a short thick style; 

 stigma obtuse, undivided, or margins lobulate. Ovules geminate, collateral, 

 pendulous. Fruit an ovoid or suhglohose drupe with 1-3 bony, 1 -seeded 

 pyrenes. Seeds exalbuminous. Cotyledons contortuplicate, sheathing the 

 terete pointed radicle. — Shrubs or small trees, often spinose, resin-affording 

 Leaves alternate, 1-3-foliolate or imparipinnate. Flowers small, fa-Hcirht 

 on thickened nodes or short lateral ramuli, or on 1 4-flowcred, axillan 

 jointed peduncles. 



A small genus of Africa and the desert tracts of Arabia and India. The siK-cics nimh 

 want careful revision, but this cannot be satisfaclorily attempted without more ample ma- 

 terial than we at present possess. 



Calyx campanulate or tubular. 



Leaflets usually 3-1, crenate- serrate. Peduncles very short . . ]. B. africanum. 



Leaflets 8-5, entire or obscurely undulate. Peduncles short . . 2. B. Opobahamum. 



Leaflets 5-11, serrate-dentate. Flower-fascicles distinctly pedun- 

 culate Z. B. pedunculatum. 



Calyx divided nearly to the base. 



Leaves usually 3-foIiolate ; leaflets obovate, glabrous .... 4. i?. Playfairxi. 



Leaves 5-7-loliolate ; leaflets entire, pubescent 5. ^. molle. 



1. B. africanum. Am. in Ann. Nat. Hist. iii. (1839) 87. A shrub 

 or small tree, usually more or less spinose ; extremities minutely pubescent 

 or glabrous : in desert situations with numerous lateral, subpatent, spinous 

 ramuli. Leaves usually 3-foliolate; leaflets rather coriaceou?, median larger, 

 obovate, with a cuneate or gradually narrowed base, obtuse or bro.idiy 

 pointed, broadly crenate-serrate, usually pubescent at least beneath or on ex- 

 pansion, i-1-^ in. long, -j-1 in. broad ; lateral leaflets obli(|ue, often less than 

 half as large as the median. Petioles equalling or much shorter than the 

 leaflets. Flowers fasciculate. Calyx campanulate or shortly tubular. An- 

 thers of the shorter stamens apiculate. Drupe subglobose, slightly oblique, 

 with a 1 -celled putamen by abortion in the specimens which I have seen. — 

 Heudelotia africana. Rich, in Fl. Seneg. i. 150. t. 39. B. Schimperi and 

 B. Kotschyi, Berg in Bot. Zeit. 1862, lfi2. 



Upper Guinea. Senegambia ! Kworra, Barter ! 



Nile Liand. Abyssinia, Schitnper ! 



Mozamb. Distr. Rovuma river, Dr. Kirk ! 



Var. abijssinicum. Leaves 3-1-foliolate, glabrous, acute or subacute, not deeply creuatr. 

 —B. abyssinicum. Berg in Bot. Zeit. 1862, 161. B. Knfal, Kth.? of Herb. Schimp. n. 

 1359. B. Kafat, Rich. Fl. Abyss, i. 149. 



Nile Ijand. Abyssinia, Schimper ! Ugani, Speke and Grant ' 



Mozamb. Distr., Dr. Kirk ! 



Var. ramosissimns. With numerous short spreading spinous Interal rannili. Petiole* 

 very short ; leaflets at length somewhat glassy. 



North Central. Kouka, E. Vogel ! 



Richard's figure in 'Fl. Senegambia' represents all the anthers ns npiculate. and Berg makes 

 use of this character in distinguishing the Abyssinian plant spcrifirally, but in both the S«"nr- 

 gambian and Abyssinian plant, 1 find only the shorter stamens with apiculate antherr In 

 the Kew herbarium there are specimens of a Lycioid-looking BaUamodrndron, m\\h \^Tr- 

 cocious flowers on bracteolate pedicels, but without leaves, which a note by l>r. Kirk 



