462 (jxxii. EUi'HORBiACE^ (buown). [Moiiadeniu hi . 



Iu\l)erfecthj knoioi species, 



22. M. Descampsii, Pax in Bull. Soc. Bot, Belg. xxxvii. 108. 

 Stems fleshy. Leaves sessile, up to IJ in. long, 1 in. broad, linear, pale 

 oreen. Flowers in cymes ; bracts free, ovate, acute, with a wing-like 

 keel i lin. broad down the back, reticulated, reddish. Involucre cylin- 

 dric, with the gland overtopping the lobes. Ovary glabrous. 



Soutb Central. Belgian Congo: between Lake Tanganyika and Lake Moero, 

 Descamps. 



23. M. simplex, Pax m Bvll. Herb. Boiss. vi. 743. Tuber oblong. 

 Leaves unknown. Cymes produced from the tuber ; peduncles 7-10 

 lin. long. Bracts subcordately lobed. Involucre about J- in. long, 

 scarcely exceeding the inner lobes. Ovary glabrous. 



Ziower Guinea. Angola: Kenguela; on a sandy plain at the sources of the 

 River Lulua, without coUec-tor's name, in Montpellier Herbarium. 



There is probably some error with regard to the cymes being produced direct 

 from the tuber, they are probably on a sliort leafy stem, from which the leaves have 

 fallen away, as in most other species. 



?>. SYNADENIUM, lioiss. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. iii. 2(11. 



Apparent flower consisting of an entire shallowly cup- or saucer-like 

 involucre, with a very spreading or more rarely erect rim-like gland 

 outside of and completely surrounding an inner series of 5 inflexed- 

 erect membranous subquadrate fringe-toothed lobes; gland usually entire, 

 occasionally having a cut-like notch on one side or divided by 2-5 cut- 

 like notches into unequal or equal segments, but not forming equally- 

 fspaced separate glands. Stamens (really male flowers, as in EupJiorhiaj 

 without a perianth) arranged in 5 groups, contained in 5 compartments 

 with membranous walls opposite the lobes of the involucre. Ovary 

 (really a female flower, as in Kuplwrhia, with the perianth reduced to a 

 rudimentary rim or of 3 minute or rarely well developed conspicuous 

 lobes) pedicellate, 3-celled, often absent; when pre.sent central and its 

 pedicel surrounded by a membranous tubular involucel, formed by the 

 inner wall of the compartments containing the stamens, lobed and fringed 

 at the top, puberulous. Styles 3, connate at the basal part ; stigmas 

 bifid or rarely entire ; ovule solitary in each cell, attached to the inner 

 anc^le at or above the middle of the cell. — Shrubs or small trees, with 

 the young branches fleshy, full of milky juice. Leaves alternate, 

 exstipulate, more or less fleshy, coriaceous when dried, cuneately ob- 

 ovate, oblanceolate, lanceolate or subspathulate. Inflorescence axillary, 

 cymose, cymose-paniculate or umbel-like, with a pair of free persistent 

 or deciduous bracts at the base of each involucre and not or scarcely 

 exceeding its rim-like gland. 



Species 13, of whi(;h one is a native of Natal. All similar in appearance (as 

 dried specimens) and require to be critically examined for determination. From an 

 examination of the material available, it is suspected that the species are rather local 



