120 cix. POLYGONACE.E (baker AND wright). [Bnmnickia. 



Perianth-lobes during flowering patent, in fruit erect and conniving, 

 lanceolate, acuminate. Stamens 5, inserted on the base of the perianth- 

 lobes. Styles connate at the base. Fruit subglobose, about 3 lin. in 

 diam. ; pedicel 2 in. long, 5 lin. wide across the wing. — Dammer in 

 Engl. Jahrb. xxvi. 357. 



Upper Guinea. Lagos : Ejan, Millen, 140 ! 



Xiower Guinea. Gaboon : Sibange Farm, Soyaux, 152 ! 382 ! 



Imperfectly known species. 



3. B. congoensis, Dammer in Engl. Jahrb. xxvi. 357. Branches 

 terete, glabrous. Leaves broadly oval, shortly acuminate, thick, re- 

 curved at the margin, glabrous, about 2 in. long, \\ in. wide; petiole 

 4 lin. long, glabrous. Racemes about 5 in. long; tendrils glabrous ; 

 bracts lanceolate or oval, fleshy, scarious at the margin ; pedicels 1 lin. 

 long. Perianth-segments 2 J lin. long, |-1J lin. wide. 



Ziower Guinea. Congo Free State: between Lukolela and the equator, 

 Buttner, 312. 



Dammer founds this on Biittner, 312, and quotes as a synonym B. africana, var. 

 crec^a (Aschers.) Biittner, in Mitteil. Afrikan. Oesellsch. 1888, 257, a publication 

 which I have not seen. This latter mime is also included in Durand and Srhinz's 

 Etudes Fl. Congo, i. 236. B. congoensis does not appear to differ by any valid character 

 from B. erect a. 



Order CX. PODOSTEMACEJE. (By J. G. Baker, 

 vi'ith additions by C. H. Wright.) 



Flowers regular, hermaphrodite or dicecious. Perianth inferior, 

 membranous, 3-5-partite or represented by minute scales or entirely 

 absent. Stamens hypogynous, 1 to many ; filaments free or united ; 

 anthers oblong, 2-celled, dehi.scing longitudinally ; pollen 1-2-celled. 

 Ovary sessile or stipitate, 1-3 -eel led ; styles 2-3 ; stigmas capitate or 

 decurrent ; placentas axile or parietal ; ovules many, anatropous. 

 Capsule 1-3-celled, dehiscing by valves, often septifragal. Seeds many, 

 minute, sessile, exalbuminous ; cotyledons flat ; radicle very short. — 

 Submerged herbs of various habit, often resembling mosses, foliaceous 

 and frondose hepaticae and algte. Flowers minute, variously arranged. 



Species about 130, chiefly in the tropics and subtropics of the Southern 

 Hemisphere. 



Flowers hermaphrodite. 



Perianth equally 3-partite . . . . 1. Teisticha. 



Perianth of 2 small linear segments. 



Stamens 3 ; filaments free or nearly so . .2. Axgol^a. 



Stamens 2 ; filaments united in the lower half. 



Capsule compressed, almost winged . . .3. Winklerella. 



Capsule not compressed, smooth . . .4. Leiothylax. | 



