.352 xxxrx. olacine.t: (oliver). [TUiajdopttalum, 



in. broad; petiole 1-2 lines, riowers in very short 3 T-tlowered axillary 

 racemes ; common peduncle scarcely exceeding- 1-3 lines or obsolete and 

 flowers fascicled or sul)solitary ; pedicels 1^-2 lines. Petals very coriaceous, 

 3-4 lines long. Fruit ellipsoidal, f in. long or a little more. Calyx persis- 

 tent unchanged. 



Upper Guinea. Fernando, Po, Mann ! Old Calabar, Thomson ! 



8. OPILIA, Roxb. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. i. 350. 



Calyx minute, 4-5-toothed, unchanged in fruit. Petals 4-5, hypogynons, 

 valvate in aestivation. Stamens as many as petals and opposite to them, free 

 or very shortly adnate to the base of the petals ; filaments filiform. Ovary 

 terete, 1 -celled, with a short thick style and obtuse stigma, surrounded by a 

 5-4-partite, free, fleshy disk ; ovule solitary, pendulous. Fruit drupaceous, 

 with a thin crustaceous pericarp. Seed albuminous ; embryo linear, terete, 

 nearly as long as the albumen (or " short in the apex of the albumen " in 

 extra-African species). — Shrubs, often scrambling or subscandent, glabrous or 

 shortly pubescent-tomentose. Leaves alternate, coriaceous, entire. Racemes 

 axillary, at first strobiliform, with deciduous peltate bracts. Flowers minute, 

 pedicellate. 



A small genus of the Old World tropics. \ find no snfficient ground to niaintaiu the 

 African species as distinct from the widely -spread 0. amentacea, Koxb. 



1. O. amentacea, Roxb. PL Coromand.W. 31. t. 158. A loosely climb- 

 ing shrub or small tree, glabrous or the extremities shortly pubescent-tomen- 

 tose. Leaves coriaceous, oval -oblong lanceolate or elliptical, acute shortly 

 acuminate or in some forms obtuse or rarely emarginate, cuneate or more or 

 less rounded at the base, entire, venation obscure or lateral veins sometimes 

 rather prominent beneath, 1-4 ^ in. long, f-l^ ^"- broad ; petiole 1-3 lines. 

 Racemes at first strobiliform, obtuse, solitary or 2-5 together fioin the axils 

 of the leaves, at length growing out to 1-1 j in., ascending or spreading, to- 

 mentose puberulous or nearly glabrous. Flowers greenish, fragrant. Bracts 

 transversely oblong-rotundate, peltate, caducous. Pedicels 1 line more or 

 less. Petals recurved or revolute above on expansion. Lobes of the disk 

 fleshy. Fruit ellipsoidal, ^-f iu. long or subglobose in some extra-African 

 forms. Embryo nearly as long as the albumen, linear-terete. — Groulia celti- 

 difoUa, Guill. 'et Perr. Fl. Seneg. 101. t. 22. Opilia celtidifolia, Endl. in 

 Walp. Rep. i. 377. Opilia javmiica, Miquel, Fl. Ind. Bat. i. 78+. 



Upper Guinea. Senegarabia! ^\^tv. Barter ! 



Nile Iiand. Madi, White Nile, Syeke and Grant ! Sennar, Kotschy ! 



Ijower Guinea. Pungo Andongo, Angola, Dr, Wehvitsch ! 



Var. /3. torfientella. Leaves smaller, usually obtuse ; extremities shortly tomentose. . 



Mozamb. Distr. Zambesi, Br. Kirk ! 



Also in India, the Archipelago, and N. Australia. 



Dr. Kirk sends, from Zanzibar, what may prove a distinct species of Opilia. The reticu- 

 lation of the leaves is very obscure, and the flowers, in the single iutlorescence sent, are 

 collected in a somewhat umbellate raceme. 



