Xapoleomt'o] Liii. jiyrtace^:. 363 



2^, or rarely 3 in. in diameter ; bark of the trunk ami older branches 

 grey, rough ; branches erect-spreading at the apex, crowded in a 

 whorled manner on the trunk, virgately elongated ; whorls .0 to 7 

 rarely U to 2 ft. distant, nodose-thickened ; Itranchleta and twigs 

 drooping, beset in places with whitish-grey warts which become white, 

 the younger branches acutely quadrangular, the older ones obtusely so, 

 the youngest ones very acutely triquetrous ; leaves variable in size, 

 mostly G to 7 in. long by 2A to 3 in. broad, coriaceous, deep-green 

 above, paler and bright-green beneath, pellucid-punctate, oblong- 

 lanceolate, repand or obscurely and obtusely dentate, obliiiuely 

 terminated at the apex with a rounded-obtu.se acumen an inch long ; 

 petiole short, scarcely ^ in. long, tliick, gibbous, ileshy, curved, with 

 an oily gloss shortly 2-winged by the decurrent Ijlade : no little glands 

 at the base of the blade ; calyx-tube furnished at the base with broad 

 ovate keeled white-greenish bracteoles, wholly blood-reddish, varnished- 

 glossy ; calyx-lobes green, acuminate, thickened in a triangular manner 

 at the apex; corolla rather fleshy, imbricate-subcontorted in iustivation, 

 snow-white at first shortly after the opening of the flower, afterwards 

 turning rose-coloured, and finally yellowish, never bluish, the corona 

 at the outer base purpHsh-peach-coloured ; stamens appartntly 20 ; 

 filaments broad, distant, cohering by means of a tliin connecting 

 membrane, monadelphous ; the alternate ones sterile ; anthers 10, 

 actually extrorse, but by the bending of the staminal tube appearing 

 to be introrse, apparently 1-celled ; stigma §-angled, pitted at the 

 concave apex, the angles slightly keeled from the centre towards the 

 circumference, the keels ending at the apex in an erect bifid crest ; 

 fruit resembling a pomegranate. In the more elevated primitive 

 forests, in company 'with Monodum Mi/rixtiai Dun. and a species of 

 Tetracera, SymphdniaglobuUfera L.f., Dichapetalnm angolfii.sr Chodat, 

 etc., fl. and fr. from Feb. toJune, not abundant ; in the dense forests 

 of the mountains of Queta, near Comuengue between N-delle and the 

 river Luinha, with few fl. and fr., 21 May 185G ; Moangue, N-delle, 

 end of June 1856. No. 4592. A small evergreen tree 7 to lo ft. high, 

 with subverticillate branches and whitish-rose handsome flowers. In 

 primitive forests of the Queta mountains, with fl. buds fl. and ripe fr. 

 on the same branch. May 185G. C(ill. C.mu'. 568. 



SiERKA Leone.— A very elegant shrub ; flowers from whitish to 

 rose-coloured. Freetown ; ripe fr. given to Welwitsch by Epfen- 

 hausen. Coll. Carp. 567. 



LIV. MELASTOMACE^. 



The proportionately very limited number of the Melastomacere in 

 Angola, so far as yet discovered, notwithstanding the attention 

 which has been devoted to their inve.stigation, lead-s to the l»elief 

 either that in Africa they are generally less abundant south of tlie 

 equator than north of it, or that the greater part of tlieni occur 

 in the highlands of Songo, Duquo do i'.ragan<;:i, and other countries 

 lying east of the province. (Wchvit.sch, Apont. p. 570 n. 169). 



1. OSBECKIA L.; Bonth. & Hook. f. Uen. Pi. i. p. 714 (18G7). 

 Antherotoina Hook. f. in Bt-nth. k Hook, f., I.e., p. 745. 

 1. 0. antherotoma Naud. in Ann. So. Nat., Ser. 3, xiv. p. 5G 

 (1850); Cogniaux in DC. Monogr. Phan. vii. p. .■?30 (1891). 

 Antherotoma Naudini Hook. f. in Eentli. A- ilook. 1. (Jtn. PI. i. 



