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XXX. On African Anonacese. By George Bentham, Esq., Pres. L.S. 
Read April 17th, 1862. 
j4.NONA CUJE, although evidently numerous in tropical Africa, are amongst the least- 
known of the plants of that continent. In the ' Niger Flora/ published in 1849, Dr. 
Hooker indicated twenty species as then more or less known ; but that number included 
three cultivated Anonas, and two or three supposed species since ascertained to be mere 
synonyms ; and very few have since been published. They are generally trees or woody 
climbers, bearing but few flowers, little attractive to the eye, and having considerable 
external resemblance to each other. The specimens gathered by collectors are there- 
fore generally few and imperfect, often with only a single flower which cannot be 
examined without destroying the specimen, and yet the changes in form which the parts 
of the flower undergo in the course of their development would often require their 
examination in bud and in the full-grown flower, as well as in fruit, before their generic 
and specific affinities can be ascertained with precision. At the time of preparing the 
Order for our * Genera Plantarum/ our African materials were still very deficient ; many 
valuable additions were, however, received from the late Mr. Barter in time for the 
revision of our manuscript before going to press : but those more recently transmitted 
by Mr. Mann from the West Coast, and by Dr. Kirk from the Zambesi, could only be 
alluded to whilst correcting the last revise ; and some have only come to hand since the 
sheet was printed off. Having now examined them all, it has appeared to me that some 
were of sufficient interest for figuring in the ' Transactions ' of the Society, and I have 
accordingly accompanied the plates I have had prepared by a synopsis of all the African 
species contained in the Kew herbaria in so far as the specimens permitted ; and I have 
also enumerated the few published species which I have been unable to identify, as well 
as such new ones as, from the imperfection of the specimens, must remain as yet of 
doubtful affinity. . 
Anonacece, with few exceptions, have a very limited geographical range. Their 
usually arboreous habit, slow growth, tardy maturity, and comparatively few flowers 
with indehiscent fruits, little attractive to birds and not endowed with any peculiar 
means of dispersion, give to most of the species but few chances m the general 
strueele for existence. Of the nearly forty African species now more or less known, 
all are confined to that continent, with the exception of the American Anon* pates 
trie, which appears to be reallv native in the swamps of the western tropical coasts ; 
yet known to extend across from the West to the East, excepting 
y American form and very closely allied *- 
and 
Anona seneaalensis, which 
several American species. In Africa, however, it is described as covering immense 
tracts of country in the greatest abundance, as well by Leprieur in Senegambja, as by 
E. Vogel in Bornou and by Kirk on the Zambesi. 
Of eleven African genera, three, Hexalobus, Manodora, and Clathroepermum, all very 
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