56 SOUTH NIGEEIAN PLANTS 



Near T. aurea Hiern, but distinguished by the shape and 

 indumentum of the leaves, the long petioles, the stipules, etc. 



Lasianthus Mannii Wernham sp. nov. Frutex ramulis com- 

 planatis dense praecipue in nodis hirsutis ; foliis petiolatis obovato- 

 lanceolatis vel ellipticis breviter acuminatis acutis basi cuneatis 

 subtus praecipue in nervis et margine supra in vena media sola 

 sparse hirsutis ; stijjidis a basi lata triangularibus ut ramuli 

 indutis ; florihus in cymis alaribus 3-4-floris sessilibus inter 

 minimos o-meris ; coroUae tubo extus glabro lobis lanceolatis 

 obtusis irregulariter pilosis; drupa 10-lobata depresso-globosa. 



Oban ; n. 266. 



The leaves are from 19 to 24 cm. long and 6 • 5 to 8 cm. broad ; the 

 densely hairy petiole is from 3 to 4 cm. long. Leaf -veins well-marked 

 on both sides of the leaf, divaricate, meeting the midrib perpejidicularly 

 and curving upwards until parallel with the margin ; the veins are 

 closely set, 11-14 pairs with nearly the same number of shorter veins 

 intervening. Stipules 7 mm. or longer, 5-6 mm. broad at the base. 

 Flowers barely 5 mm. long. Fruit 4-5 mm. in diameter, with a broad 

 10-furrowed crown. 



Its nearest ally is L. hatangensis K. Schum., from which it differs 

 in the much larger and differently-shaped leaves and longer petioles, 

 in the leaf-venation, in the arrangement of the flowers, and in the size 

 of the fruit. Our species is apparently identical with the plant 

 collected by Mann on the Gaboon Eiver (n. 917), preserved in the 

 Kew Herbarium, although the latter is not quite so hairy {vide Hiern, 

 in Fl. Trop. Afr. iii. 228). 



COMPOSITE by Mr. S. Moore. 



Contrary to what is usually found in an African collection, 

 the Compositse form quite an inconspicuous element in the one 

 under notice, and indeed the Composite flora of Upper Guinea 

 is a poor one at best. One sees the same relative poverty when 

 comparison is drawn between Eastern Brazil and Amazonia, 

 India and the Malay Peninsula, and the interior of Australia 

 and its northern coasts. In these cases the country more open 

 in character and drier in climate is the richer in Composita^, a 

 fact of high antecedent probability, seeing that the fruit is dis- 

 persed chiefly by means of the pappus, and in a moist, densely 

 afforested district this dispersal would be restricted not only by 

 liability of the pappus to collapse, but because the thickly 

 growing vegetation would form an obstacle to the achenes in 

 their flight. 



Vernonia frondosa Oliver & Hiern (n. 49a) is a fine species 

 hitherto unrepresented in the National Herbarium. 



Sphaeranthus (§ Pauciflori) Talbotii S. Moore (in Macleod 

 " Chiefs and Cities of Central Africa," 303). Herba veri- 

 similiter humilis ; ramis subsparsim foliosis anguste alatis cito 



