Serpicula] h. halorage^. 333 



specimens were lost during his passage by night across the river Bero ; 

 these were two specimens with foliage collected in Nov. 1853, and in 

 1855 he searched the margins of the river Dande, but failed to find the 

 plant again ; further consideration led Welwitsch to the conclusion that 

 he may have been mistaken in referring the specimens to Ahjriophyllum. 



LT. EHIZOPHORACE^. 



1. EHIZOPHORA L. ; Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. PI. i. p. 678. 



1. E. Mangle L. Sp. PI. edit. 1, p. 443 (1753); Welw. Apont. 

 p. 568 under n. 165; Ficalho, PI. Uteis, p. 181 (1884). 



Var. racemosa Engl, in Mart. Fl. Bras. xii. part ii. p. 427 (1876). 



R. racemosa G. F."W. Meyer, Prim. Fl. Esseq. p. 185 (1818) ; 

 Oliv. Fl. Trop. Afr. ii. p. 408. 



Ambriz. — A shrub or sometimes a tree attaining 20 ft. or more ; in 

 masses about the mouth of the river Loge near Ambriz ; sparingly in 

 fl. Nov. 1853. No. 2497. 



LoANDA. — Wood rose-red, afterwards turning pale ; peduncles 1 to 

 2-, usually 2-flowered, fruit clavate-cylindrical -conical ; embryo germi- 

 nating in the fruit and after its fall taking root in maritime mud ; 

 occasionally 2 embryos were seen in one and the same ovary, both 

 germinating. Abundant and highly gregarious along the Atlantic 

 coast near to Loanda, as for example at Praia do Bispo fr. June 1854, 

 at Cabo Lombe fl. and fr. July 1854, and at Praia do Zambe Grande 

 fl. and fr. beginning of August 1854. Fl. nearly the whole year. 

 No. 2496. Coll. Carp. 546. 



The Mangrove is abundant on the sea coast in muddy and sandy 

 situations, (but nowhere seen in rocky places,) near Ambriz, Lifune, 

 Dande, Bengo, Loanda island, and at the mouth of the Cuanza ; it is 

 mostly a dense shrub or bush of 8 to 10 ft. often only 5 ft. high, but 

 occasionally a tree reaching 80 ft. or more, as for instance at the mouth 

 of the river Loge ; it appears to prefer a mixture of fresh and sea water 

 about its roots, for at the mouths of rivers it becomes a tree of con- 

 siderable height and thus gives a stately appearance to the estuaries, 

 although it rarely acquires a fine head ; it frequently grows mixed with 

 Laguncularia racemosa Gaertn. and Avicenyiia officinalis L. The wood 

 is considered valuable for various building purposes, and that of the 

 bush-form is mostly used for firewood, but it is not very good fuel ; 

 the bark abounds in an astringent ingredient, fit for tanning leather. 

 The leaves are bright-green above and yellowish-green beneath ; the 

 flowers are of moderate size, tetragonal-pyramidal in bud, and of a 

 pleasant sweet-acid odour ; the calyx and corolla are waxy-rigid and of 

 a sulphur-yellow colour ; the calyx is constantly 4-parted. I follow 

 Welwitsch's matured opinion in referring his specimens to R. racemosa. 



Welwitsch observed at the very mouth of the river Loge near 

 Ambriz some tall trees with a trunk bare for some height in the 

 lower part and at the apex forming a loose head, of which he could 

 not gather specimens, but which he regarded as belonging to a quite 

 different species. 



