Physedra.] lxiv. cucurbitace2E (hooker). 553 



on 3 placentas. Fruit oblong 1 . Seeds (unripe) obovate, compressed, 

 margined, smooth. — Climbing, tropical African, glabrous, glaucous 

 herbs or shrubs ; branches slender. Leaves shortly petioled ; palmately 

 5-7-lobed ; young ones very polymorphous. Tendrils undivided. 



Male flowers on short stout pedicels, fascicled on a short stout 

 peduncle 1- P. heterophylla. 



Female flowers on long slender pedicels, racemed on a long slen- 

 der peduncle 2. P. longipes. 



1. P. heterophylla, Hook. f. Leaves very variable, 4-5 in. long, 

 2-5 in. broad, subdeltoid-ovate or palmately 3-5-lobed or angled, lobes 

 short and broad, or leaf deeply 5-lobed with longer oblong acute lobes ; 

 basal sinus large and open in the simple leaves, deep and closed in the 

 lobed ones ; tips of leaves and their segments subulate and hooked, 

 brown and hard when dry, fragile and succulent when fresh ; upper 

 surface papillose, lower covered with minute raised points ; petiole very 

 short, J-f in. Tendrils long and stout. Male fl. : Crowded on a very 

 short axillary peduncle, very shortly^ pedicelled. Calyx-tube turbinate; 

 lobes spreading, J in. long. Corolla fleshy, cylindric, f in. long by 

 \ in. broad, coriaceous, orange-yellow, 5-lobed to about the middle, 

 clothed with long papillae within. Female fl. : Solitary, or panicled on 

 a short stout peduncle. Ovary narrow, ovoid, glabrous, \ in. long. 

 Calyx-tube \ in. long, lobes and corolla as in the male. Fruit shortly 

 cylindric, rounded at both ends, 1-1J in. long. Seeds very numerous, 

 l-5th in. long. 



Lower Guinea- Angola, Golungo Alto, thickets, Br. Welwitsch ! 

 Var. /3. Leaves subdigitately 7-lobed below the middle, acutely serrate with long 

 points to the serratures, and the lobes terminating in longer slender tails. 

 Lower Guinea. Angola, forests, Br. Welwitsch! 



2. P. longipes, Hook. f. Leaves 4-5 in. long and broad, palmately 

 5-lobed to near the base ; lobes lanceolate or oblanceolate, long acumi- 

 nate, quite entire, sinus narrow, two lateral spreading, falcate and de- 

 flexed, with oblique bases which approach or overlap beyond the petiole, 

 dark brown when dry; petiole 1^—2 in. long. Tendrils very long and 

 stout. Male fl ., peduncles 2-4 in. long, slender, flexuous ; bracts small, 

 stout, fleshy, recurved or revolute ; pedicels J-l in. spreading. Male 

 buds only seen, ± in. long. Calyx-tube turbinate, lobes short. 



Upper Guinea. Fernando Po, Vogel! Sierra del Crystal, Alarm 1 



22. KHAPHIDIOCYSTIS, Hook. f. j Benth. et Hook. f. 

 Gen. Plant, i. 828. 



Monoecious. Flowers solitary or fascicled and axillary. Male : Calyx 

 campanulate ; lobes 5, pectinately pinnatifid. Corolla campanulate ; 

 lobes 5, short, acute. Filaments 3, free, inserted at the base of the 

 calyx ; anthers connate, cells flexuous. Rudiments of ovary 0. Female 

 fl. on longer pedicels. Staminodes 0. Ovary oblong or globose, hispid ; 

 style columnar, inserted in a depressed disk ; stigmas 3, each with 3-5 



