104 xc. oonvolvulace.e (baker and rendle). [Merremia. 



Mozamb. Bist. Portuguese East Africa : Lower Zambesi : near Tete, KirJc ! 

 British Central Africa: Boruma, Menyharth, 1073! Ngamiland : Kwebe Hills, 

 3300 ft., Lugard, 82 ! Matabeleland ; Matlouce, Holub, 1497 and 1498 ! 



4. M. tuberosa, Eeudle. A perennial shrub, glabrous, with 

 milky sap. Stems high-climbing, smooth. Leaves as in /. Icentrocaulos ; 

 segments acuminate. Flowers several to many in a lax clichasial cyme 

 on long or longish peduncles ; pedicels about 1 in. or less in length ; 

 bracts minute, deciduous. Sepals oval to oval-oblong, generally obtuse, 

 but sometimes subacuminate, barely 1 in. long. Corolla funnel-shaped, 

 barely 2 in. long, golden-yellow ; limb crenate. Capsule large, 

 elliptic-globose, glabrous, as big as a pigeon's egg or a walnut, 

 2-celJed, generally 2-seeded by abortion ; pericarp thin, surrounded 

 by thin large persistent orbicular toughish sepals. If in. long. 

 Seeds large, blackish, hirtulous especially on the angles, |- in. long, about 

 7 lin. broad at the base. — Operculina tuberosa, Meissn. in Mart. Fl. 

 Bras. vii. 212 ; Hallier f. in Engl. Jahrb. xviii. 119 ; Hiern in Cat. Afr. 

 PI. Welw. i. 730 ; Henriq. in Bol. Soc. Brot. xvi. 68. Ipomcea tuberosa, 

 Linn. Sp. PI. ed. 1, 160; Choisy in DC. Prodr. ix. 362 partly (excl. syn. 

 Steud.). /. Mendesii, Welw. Apont. Phyto-Geogr. 584. 



lower Guinea. Angola : Benguella ; in thickets and introduced into 

 gardens in Loanda, Welwitscli, 6254 ! Malange, Marques, 35. 

 Also in the Mascarene Islands, India, and Tropical America. 



5. M. dissecta, Hallier f. in Engl. Jahrb. xviii. 111. Perennial. 

 Stems twining, terete, more or less densely clothed with spreading 

 yellow hairs. Leaves membranous, 3—6 in. in diam., orbicular in 

 general outline, cut down nearly to the base into 7 lanceolate acute 

 irregularly grossly toothed segments ; petiole up to about 1^ in. long, 

 hairy. Peduncles long or short, 2-8-flowered ; bracts minute, deci- 

 duous ; pedicels generally |~1 in. long. Flower buds ovoid-conical. 

 Sepals elliptic-oblong, obtuse, glabrous, about 9 lin. long, rigid and 

 spreading in fruit, reaching 1 in. or more in length. Corolla broadly 

 funnel-shaped, white with a purple throat, 1^-2 in. long, opening in 

 the evening. Capsule globose, glabrous, 6 lin. or more in diam. 

 Seeds large, 3 lin. long, nearly or quite glabrous, dark coloured. — 

 Ipomcea sinuata, Ortega, Decades, vii. 84 ; Choisy in DC. Prodr. ix. 362 ; 

 Benth. in Hook. Niger Fl. 468. Convolvulus dissectus, Jacq. Obs. ii. 

 4, t. 28 ; Britten in Journ. Bot. 1894, 171. 



Upper Guinea. Fernando Po, Vogel, 238 ! 



Now cosmopolitan in the tropics. Probably indigenous only in America. 



6. M. bipiimatipartita, Hallier f. in Engl. Jahrb. xviii. 115. 

 Perennial, glabrous ; stem procumbent, with long internodes. Leaves 

 somewhat thick, orbicular or shortly ovate in general outline, 2|— 3 in. 

 long, 2-3 in. broad ; two lateral segments approximate, bipinnatisect, 

 secondary lobes 6-9 in. long, furnished with large distant teeth ; petiole 

 under 1 in. long. Peduncle about as long as the petiole, bearing above 

 the middle the small ovate bracts, which are 2 lin. long. Sepals 

 obovate, very minutely puberulous, 8 lin. long, 6 lin. broad. Corolla 



