662 Lxxxii. APOCYNACE.E. [Facouria 



the younger twigs and also the fresh leaves are covered with a silky 

 pubescence which in the course of drying turns rusty-brown ; the 

 leaves are opposite and when fully grown become rather coriaceous, 

 oblong or elliptic-oblong, more or less acuminate at the apex, some- 

 what attenuate but sub-obtuse at the base, quite entire, 2A to 7 in. 

 long by 1 to 3 in. broad, distantly penninerved, shining and densely 

 reticulate on both faces ; petioles slightly pubescent, channelled, I to 

 -} in. long ; inflorescence terminal, much branched, many flowered, 

 corymbose, at first very dense ; peduncle at first very short, afterwards 

 elongating and reaching 2 to 3 in. long. With the exception of the 

 corolla, which is quite glabrous outside and at first white, but very 

 soon changes to a dusky red tint, the whole of the inflorescence is 

 covered with a ferruginous or nearly cinnamon-coloured pubescence, 

 which, however, gradually disappears from the fruiting peduncles so 

 as to be scarcely discernible on them when they ultimately become 

 transformed into spirally twisted tendrils. The fruit of this species, 

 as well as those of P. florida and P. crassifolia, is of the shape of 

 a middle-sized orange but rather pyriform, and when quite ripe is 

 covered outside with thick wrinkles and contains, under its hard 

 almost woody reddish-brown skin, a sweet slightly acid pulp with 

 numerous bean-like seeds ; the copious horny albumen of the seeds splits 

 into two nearly equal halves, showing in the centre the erect embryo 

 with its ample membranous oblong very obtuse cotyledons of the same 

 length as the albumen and with its short turgid nearly obtuse radicle. 

 Welwitsch reported that this plant is frequently met with in Sobato 

 de Quilombo-Quiacatubia situate on the frontier of the district of the 

 Dembos, and also in several of the highland districts of the interior ; 

 he gave its geographical range as extending from 10^ N. lat. to 10" 

 S. lat. in Western Africa. The natives of Golungo Alto bring at 

 times small quantities of the elastic gum to the markets on the coast. 

 See Welwitsch, Synopse Explic. p. 50, n. 134. 



2. P. florida. 



Landolphia florida Benth. in Hook. Niger Fl. p. 444 (1849) ; 

 Ficalho, PI. tjteis, p. 216 (1884). L. comorensis (Boj.) var. 

 florida K. Schum. in Engl. Bot. Jahrb. xv. p. 404. 



Golungo Alto and Cazexgo. — A robust shrub, climbing to the 

 tops of the loftiest trees and then near Cambondo flowering in company 

 with a sjiecies of Qimhrctum (cf. C. paw cuhi turn Vent, and C. aiigohnac 

 Welw. ; herb. Nos. 4363, 4323) ; stem milky ; leaves coriaceous, rigid, 

 thining above, elliptical or oblong, large (6 to 7 in. long by 2 to 3 in. 

 broad) ; flowers terminal and axillary, corymbose, white, very fragrant, 

 handsome ; corolla-tube not always pilose inside above ; corolla-lobes 

 thinly pubescent on both faces, this pubescence in some flowers ex- 

 tending within the throat ; anthers oblong-linear, obtuse at the apex, 

 emarginate at the base, attached at the back to the filament a little 

 above the emargination ; style firm, strictly erect, gradually narrowed 

 from the broader base, scarcely filiform ; fruit baccate, oblong-ovoid, 

 as large as a man's fist (3j in. in vertical diameter, 2 to 2^ in. in 

 transverse diameter), aromatic, milky, edible, agreeably acidulous, the 

 skin rugose, verrucose-scrobiculate, orange-coloured when ripe ; the 

 milk soon coagulating into an elastic gum. At Sange ; fl. and fr. 

 Feb. 1855. At the margins of forests among the mountains of Alto 

 Queta and near Cambondo, sporadic ; fl. Dec. 1854, fr. June 1855. 

 At Quibolo, fl. Aug. 1856. Negro name "Matuti," " Dituti," or 

 " Rituti." No. 5929 and Coll. Carp. 715. 



