112 SOUTH NIGERIAN PLANTS 



leaf, but emitting their flowers. The drawing of this form gives 

 the flowers of a pure blue. These resemble closely the types of 

 the plant as described by Schumann, collected in the Cameroons 

 by Preuss (n. 352) and in the East Gaboon by Bates (n. 548). 



The second drawing (n. 57) shows a plant differing in that 

 the spikes are freed from the leaf-sheath and spreading sub- 

 horizontally. The flower here is given as of a lilac colour. The 

 specimens corresponding to this drawing resemble those of the 

 typical H. azurea except that the spikes have spread from the 

 sheath. In other specimens the spikes in two or three fascicles 

 are quite free and spreading, and elongated to as much as 30 cm. 

 I conclude that these are only a later stage development of the 

 form which commences to flower before the spikes are actually 

 free of the petiole-sheath. The flowers are very thin and 

 fugacious and preserve ill ; the foliage and fruit, however, are the 

 same in all. 



A third form or state has a single spike emitted directly from 

 the rhizome without any of the basal leaves or sheaths developed 

 into true leaves. The few specimens are rather poor, and the 

 drawing is only a pencil sketch. It is quite possible that this is 

 a distinct species, but it may be an occasional sport of an 

 inflorescence in which the foliar stem has been suppressed or not 

 evolved. A similar modification occurs occasionally in Globha, 

 Costus nfer, C. speciosus and other members of the family. 



This interesting and charming genus whose distribution — 

 Africa, Burma and Java — is peculiar, requires further in- 

 vestigation. 



DIOSCOREACE^ffi:. 



Dioscorea polyantha Ilendle. Oban; n. 781. The specimen 

 is in male flower ; the flowers correspond with those of the type 

 specimen from Angola, but the leaves are partly opposite. 



The other species collected are generally distributed in Tropical 

 or West Tropical Africa. 



LILIACEiE. 



The specimens representing this order are generally more or 

 less widely distributed in Tropical Africa. Of the eight species 

 of Dracaena two are Nigerian, namely, D. Godseffiana Sander 

 (Lagos) and D. cj/Iiiidrifn Hook. f. (Calabar). Two species of 

 CJdoroj^iliytam are from the Cameroons, and one from Sierra Leone. 



Dracaena Talbotii Rendle sp. nov. Planta folils infra 

 spicam aggregatis sessilibus linearibus utrincjue angustatis 

 acuminatis basi vaginantibus, nervo mediano crasso per totum 



