148 Lxx. IIUBIACE5: (hiern). {Vangueria. 



tent, haiiy on both sides, short. Corolla subcampanulate, more or less 

 hairy outside ; throat hairy ; lobes revolute, ovate, mucronulate, glabrous 

 inside, nearly equalling the tube. Anthers yellow or brown, exserted. 

 Disk glabrous. Ovary 5-celled ; style robust, just exceeding the corolla, 

 glabrous ; stigma drum-shaped, sulcate. Fruit globose, smooth, gla- 

 brous, ^1 in. diameter, 5- seeded. — DC. Prod. iv. p. 454. V. velutina, 

 Hook. Bot. Mag. t. 3014. V. tomentosa, Hochst. in Flora, 1842, p. 238 

 in not. 



Mozamb. Sistr. Tette, Kirk: between Lupata and Tette, fruit edible, Kirk ! 

 Rovuma River, 8 miles from the coast. Kirk ! 



Occurs also in the Kalahari region of South Africa to Delagoa Bay, Natal, and 

 Kafirland ; also in ]\Ladagascar (Hooker) and introduced in Seychelles. 



Burchell states that this plant was regarded by the Baehapins as bewitched and 

 unlucky, and therefore unfit for firewood, and that the fruit is not edible. It is, 

 however, edible in other parts of S. Africa, and is the Wild Medlar of the colonists ; 

 in Kafirland it is an excellent fruit tree, and the fruit surpasses our medlar. There 

 is in the Kew Herbarium a specimen collected by Baines in the year 1872 from 

 ' tropical South Africa.' 



2. V. edulis, Valil^ Symh. in. p. 36 (1794). A good-sized shrub, 

 8 feet high or more, or a small tree, glabrous except under the stipules 

 and the inflorescence. Branches subterete, of a dull reddish colour. 

 Leaves opposite, deciduous, elliptical, usually acute at both ends, 

 membranous, or at length chartaceous, rather paler beneath, delicately 

 net-veined, 2-8 by 1-4 in. ; lateral veins about 5-10 pairs, slender, 

 not prominent ; petiole :J— | in. ; stipules caudate-acuminate from a 

 deltoid persistent base, about -^ in. long. Fbwers greenish, appearing 

 when the leaves are young, ^^ in. long, on short alternate pedicels, in 

 divaricately branched rather lax lateral and axillary puberulous panicles 

 of 1-2 in. diameter ; common peduncles glabrate or puberulous, 

 ranging up to ^ in., bearing two opposite bracteoles connate at the 

 base, inserted at or near the top. Calyx glabrous ; limb spreading ; 

 teeth 5, ovate, subacumiuate. Corolla glabrous outside, funnel-shaped; 

 lobes 5, ovate, subacute. Ovary 5-celled. Stigma calyptriform, 

 shortly exserted ; style glabrous. Fruit edible, subglobose, somewhat 

 4-5-sided, about 1 in. diameter, 4-5-seeded. — DC. Prodr. iv. p. 454, 

 cum syn. V, venosa, Hochst. in Hb. Schimp. Abyss, ii. 653 ; non 

 Sonder. 



Vpper Guinea. Niger, Idda. and Aboh, Barter! 



zrile Ziand. Abyssinia, Q. Dillon and Petit ! Sckimper ! ii, 653 ; Ferret and 

 Galinier (habit of the coffee-plant), Hildebrandt! Gallabat, Schweiiifurth .' Djur- 

 land, Schweinjurth I Bongo-land, Schweiiifurth! 



Occurs also in Madagascar and other African islands, and is found (probably 

 introduced) in the East Indies. 



Var. Baincsii. Loaves mostly rounded at base. Can this be V. infausta, var. 

 /3. virescens, Sond. in Harv. et Sond. Fl. Cap. iii. 14? 



Soutb Central T South African Gold Fields, Mangwe River, Baines! 



A native also of Madagascar according to De CandoUe, Prodr. iv. p. 454, and 

 cultivated in the Mascarene Islands and China. 



3. V. abyssinica, A. Rich. FL Abyss, i. p. 353. An unarmed 

 shrub or small tree, tawny-tomentose on the young parts. Branches 



