LII. COMBRETACE.E. 337 



LIL COMBRETACE^. 



Combretacese, wliether as climbers often with their grand 

 inflorescence, or as moderate-sized trees, constitute one of the 

 greatest ornaments of the tropical landscape, making a splendid 

 show with their variously-coloured leaves and winged fruits ; by 

 the abundance of their flowers, especially in the case of the 

 species which have red blossoms, they produce a wonderfully 

 magnificent effect : they mostly bloom in winter. Gombretimi 

 flcmimeum Wehv., a climbing shrub, which is frequent about 

 Sange in Golungo Alto, has its petals and sepals and even its 

 bracts coloured bright red, ultimately turning dark blood-red, 

 and thus presents the appearance of a burning bush. Few species 

 give from dried specimens any adequate idea of the beauty of the 

 plants in a growing state. Some species occur only as herbs or 

 undershrubs, others as trees even to the height of 80 ft., others 

 again either as small shrubs or mighty climbei^s ; some have a very 

 wide distribution, as for instance C. constrictuvi Laws., which occurs 

 on both the western and eastern sides of the African continent, 

 and which in Angola is difi^used in different forms in the interior, 

 and is represented in Pungo Andongo by a closel}^ allied species. 



Six species of trees or erect shrubs adorn the forests about 

 Pungo Andongo, and of these one with large glossy leaves and 

 clusters of blood-red fruits is conspicuous, inhabiting the forests 

 of the Cuanza valley from Sansamanda to Quisonda, a distance 

 of at least 75 to 80 geographical miles; Comhretuni constrictum 

 Laws., an officinal shrub, occurs very abundantly near Can- 

 dumba ; the scandent species with flaming-red floweis are rarer 

 than in Golungo Alto and Cazengo ; but G. racemosum. P. Beauv. 

 with its silky-glossy leaves and scarlet-red flowers produces a 

 splendid contrast. Several species, which are found in masses in 

 Golungo Alto, occur in Pungo Andongo singly, and so exei-cise but 

 little effect as a feature in the physiognomy of the vegetation. 



Most species show a considerable vaiiation between the leaves 

 of their young shoots and those of the older flower-bearing 

 branches, both in shape and indumentum, so that it is often very 

 difficult to classify forms of the same species which have sprung 

 from the same stock but at different periods or have attained a, 

 greater age ; frequently even the densest tomentum on the radical 

 shoots becomes obsolete on the flowering shrub. The pubescence, 

 which is often silky or like felt, and which is whitish or greyish 

 on the living plant, assumes on dried specimens a tawny or 

 ferruginous colour, rendering the descriptions taken from herba- 

 rium specimens mostly erroneous and occasioning wrong diagnostic 

 characters. For instance, C. holosericeum Sond. is described by 

 its author as clothed with tawny hairs, while in natuie it shines 

 with a silvery-white pubescence on its leaves and branches, and 

 the wings of its fruit, described as yellowish, are really of a 

 blood-red colour. 



The colour of the petals is remarkably constant in the same 



