Zombiaiia.] xcix. myoporine.e (rolfe). 2(53 



cent; exocarp fleshy, succulent or rarely dry; endocarp hard or tliin, 

 2-celled or the cells as numerous as the seeds, rarely breaking up into 

 pyrenes. Seeds 2-10, usually solitary, in cells arranged in one series 

 round the axis, very rarely superposed (the upper ovules being generally 

 abortive), pendulous, oblong; testa membranous or somewhat thickened ; 

 albumen fleshy, slender, or nearly absent. Embryo straight or slightly 

 curved; radicle terete, superior; cotyledons semiterete, slightly broader 

 and shorter (rarely longer) than the radicle. — Erect or dift'iuse shrubs or 

 rarely trees, glabrous, tomentose, canescent, lepidote, (u- pubescent. 

 Leaves alternate or rarely opposite, entire or rarely dentate, e.xsti- 

 pulate. Flowers axillary, solitary or fascicled, subsessile or pedicellate. 

 Bracts small or absent. 



A small Order of aboiit 6 genera and 80 species, mostly Australinn, with a few 

 Polynesian representatives, ranging from the Sandwich Islands to !Mauritius ; two 

 others in China and Japan, one in the West Indies, two in South Africa, and the follow - 

 iofj Tropical African monotype, whose systematic position, however, is somewhat 

 doubtful. 



1. ZOMBIANA, Baill. Hist, des PI. ix. 420. 



Sepals 5, narrowly linear, united only at the base. Corolla-tube 

 narrowly campanulate ; limb somewhat 2-lobed, with 5 imbricate lobe-". 

 Stamens didynamous, slightly unequal, aflixed to the base of the tube ; 

 filaments filiform ; anthers ovate, retrorse, opening by two slits. Ovary 

 2-celled; ovules 2 in each cell, descending; style slender, capitellate. 

 Fruit drupaceous; exocarp slender; pyrenes 4; seeds descending; 

 embryo exalbuminous ; radicle superior; cotyledons ovate, ■fleshy. — A 

 small shrub. Leaves alternate, petiolate. Flowers very similar to 

 those of Myoporiim, subsessile in the upper leaf-axils or terminal with 

 a few leaves under the calyx. 



Endemic. 



1. Z. africana, Baill. Hist, des PL ix. 421. A small shrub. 

 Branches terete, softly pubescent when young, afterwards nearly 

 glabrous, and striate with numerous slightly wavy ridges ; nodes 

 thickened. Leaves alternate or sometimes appearing fascicled by arrt'st 

 of the lateral branches, shortly petiolate, elliptic-lanceolate, obtu.>e, 

 crenulate, pilose beneath and at the margin, sparingly so above, 

 J-1J|: in. long, 2-4 lin. broad; primary nerves 2 or o pairs, very 

 oblique; petioles 1-1 lin. long. Flowers and fruit not seen. — Wettst. 

 in Engl. (kPrantl,"Pflanzenfam. iv. ;^> B. 860; Briquet in Bull. Herb. 

 Boiss. iv. o24. Mjjoporum^ sp. africana, Benth. Fl. Austr. v. 2, in 

 obs., and in Benth. et -Hook. f. Gen. PI. iii. 1 124, in obs. 



TTpper Guinea. Niger Territory, Ba,ter,\\\'i\ 



In the absence of good material, the systematic position of this genus must remain 

 doubtful. Bentham, in the Flora Australiensis, I.e., regarded it as a species of 

 Myoporum, but subsequently (Gen. PI. I.e.) retracted that opinion. Dr. J. 

 Briquet, who has studied the' histolopy of this plant, suggests that it may belong to 

 Selaginece or Verbenacece, but its fruit does not agree with that of the former ordt-r. 

 nor the position of the radicle with that of the latter. The generic name deri\td 

 from a place-name, Zomba — not Zomba in British Central .\frica — is apt to miblend, 

 as the plant has been found only on the western side of the continm*. 



