I 



Myrsine.] Lxxix. MYRSINEJ; (paker). 493 



Also Arabia. This seems to me distinct from the common Asiatic M. indica, A. DC. 

 by its much more compound infloresence and shorter pedicels, but I should refer here 

 as a variety with pilose branchlets and other parts, the Natal M. rufcscetis, A. DC. 



2. MYBSINE, Linn. ; Benth. efc Hook. f. Gen. PI. ii. 642. 



Flowers polygamous. Calyx persistent, minute, entirely free from 

 the ovary, with generally 5, rarely 4, deltoid imbricate teeth. Corolla 

 rotate, with as many segments as the calyx and a very short tube. 

 Stamens inserted at the throat of the corolla tube, as many as the im- 

 bricate segments and opposite to them ; filament or very short ; 

 anther lanceolate, cuspidate. Ovary globose ; style short, cylindrical ; 

 stigma capitate ; ovules few. Fruit small, globose, dry or fleshv, 

 1-seeded. Seed the same shape as the fruit, sessile, with abundant 

 horny sometimes slightly ruminate albumen. — Erect or procumbent 

 trees or shrubs, with branchlets usually stout, the mostly entire leaves 

 crowded near their tips and the copious small whitish flowers sessile 

 or pedicellate in umbels from the branchlets below the leafy part. 



A genus of eighty species, spread round the world principally in the Tropical 

 zone ; two out of the four Tropical African species are abundant at the Cape. 

 Leaves small, toothed, not crowded towards the end of the 



branchlets, with the flowers in their axils 1. M. africana. 



Leaves comparatively large, entire, crowded towards the 



end of the branchlets, with the flowers below them. 

 Stamens exserted. Leaves obovate-oblong . . . , . . 2. M. querimbensis. 

 Stamens included. Leaves oblong or oblanceolate-oblong. 



Pedicels as long as the flower or fruit o. M. melanophlaos. 



Pedicels twice as long as the flower or fruit 4 M. simensis. 



1. M. africana, Linn. ; A. DC. Prod. viii. 93. A low very 

 much branched shrub, with very slender pilose or glabrous branchlets, 

 with the abundant leaves spaced all down them. Leaves subsessile, 

 obovate or oblong, i-| in. long, obtuse or acute, finely serrated, cuneate 

 at the base, subcoriaceous, green and glabrous on both sides or a little 

 pubescent beneath, with only the midrib prominently raised. Flowers in 

 copious globose sessile clusters in the axils of the leaves, as many as 

 10 or 12 to a cluster. Calyx very minute, with a short turbinate tube 

 and usually 5, rarely 4, orbicular much imbricated segments. Corolla 

 '^^ in. across when expanded ; tube very short ; segments oblono-. 

 Stamens very large for the size of the flower ; anthers oblong, cuspi- 

 date, much exserted ; filaments very short. Fruit glabrous, globose, 

 bright brown, ^ in. diameter ; style short, cylindrical ; stigma minute, 

 capitate, entire. 



Wile Iiand. Mountains of Abyssinia, Schimper ! PlowdenI Roth! Quartin- 

 Dillon and Petit ! &c. 



Also the Cape and Azores. 



2. M. querimbensis, KlotzscJi in Peters Mossamh. Bot. i. 185. 

 A shrub or small tree, glabrous except a little ferruginous or grey to- 

 mentum on the young branchlets. Leaves crowded towards the top 

 of the branchlets ; petiole J-J in., bordered by a narrow wing ; blade 



