59 BALSAMODENDRUM OPOBALSAMUM 



longer peduncles, which are solitary or 2 3 together at the extremi- 

 ties of the stunted branches, with several small, ovate bracts at the 

 forks, whole inflorescence shorter than the leaf -petiole. Calyx cup- 

 shaped, smooth, persistent, with 4 faint distant teeth or shallow 

 lobes. Petals 4, alternating with the calyx-teeth, oblong, acute, 

 erect, reddish, valvate in the bud. Male flowers : stamens 8, hypo- 

 gynous, inserted beneath a ring-shaped hypogynous disk surround- 

 ing the rudimentary ovary, about as long as petals, the alternate 4 

 often shorter, anthers large, 2-celled ; pistil rudimentary. Female 

 flowers: stamens usually 4, about half as long as the petals, disk 

 small ; ovary longer than the stamens, ovoid, tapering, 2-celled, 

 with 2 axile ovules in each cell, stigma large, capitate. Fruit 

 slightly compressed, ovoid or somewhat pyriform, apiculate, about 

 inch long, stalked, surrounded at the base by the persistent calyx, 

 glabrous, epicarp leathery, ultimately dehiscing into 2 or partially 

 into 4 boat-shaped valves, mesocarp (?) yellowish-white, pulpy, 

 irregularly cup-shaped, and extending up the pyrenes on 4 sides, 

 but not covering them, fertile pyrene very hard, black, containing 

 a single seed, with the fibrous, cord-like axis of the fruit running 

 up between it and the other scale-like, adpressed, abortive pyrene 

 and attached to the top of both. Seed solitary, grooved down 

 one side, testa thin, yellow ; embryo large with plaited cotyledons, 

 and a short, thick, superior radicle ; no endosperm. 



Habitat. This species of Balsamodendrum appears to have a 

 somewhat extensive range on both sides of the Ked Sea, south of 

 22 north latitude, and is in many places one of the most fre- 

 quent shrubs. From Africa we have seen specimens from several 

 places on the Nubian Coast and the islands near, from Abys- 

 sinia both from the coast and inland hills, and from Somali-land. 

 In the latter country, according to Hildebrandt, it is called 

 "Dossemo " by the natives, and grows at an elevation of 1100 

 1600 metres. From the Asiatic side, we have specimens from 

 Ghizan on the Red Sea in Arabia collected by Ehrenberg and from 

 the neighbourhood of Aden. Forskal's specimens, merely labelled 

 " ex oriente," are said to have been collected in the province of 

 Yemen in Arabia, and there is abundant evidence to show that the 



