453 



The Systematic Anatomy of the 

 genus Canephora. 



H. F. Wernham, B. Sc. 



Assistant in the Department of Botany, British Museum; 

 Lecturer in Botany at the Goldsmitha' College, University of London. 



With 7 figiires in the text. 



The examination from the systematic s[;indpoiiit of the spe- 

 cimens of Canephora in the National and Kew Hcrbariai) has led 

 me to investigate the anatomy of these curious plants as fully as 

 may have been consistent with the scanty and somewhat poor 

 material available, which was taken from herbarium specimens. 

 The bulk of the tissues, being more or less lignified, is tolerably 

 well preserved: but the softer portions, particularly the phloem, 

 have perished to a considerable extent. 



This rare genus ofRubiaceae is, so far as oiir present know- 

 ledge extends, confined to Madagascar. 



The five species hitherto described all reveal more or less 

 strongly marked xerophytic characters; they are shrubs or trees, 

 with leathery leaves, and destitute of indumentum. The rather 

 small campanulate flowers are borne two or three together in the 

 hollowed apices of axillary flattened branches (Fig. 1). The coroUa 

 is contorted in aestivation, and the bilocular ovary contains a few 

 ovules, maturing into a few-seeded berry, so that the genus finds 

 a place in the section Ginchojwideae-Oardenimae-Garcleiiieae.^) 



We may proceed forthwith to such anatomical details as have 

 been ascertained in the course of the enquiry. Three only of the 

 five known species have been available for the pui'pose of this 

 investigation — C. madagascariensis Gmelin, upon which the genus 

 was founded; C. angustifolia and C. Goudotü, described by myself 

 in the Journal of Botany (loc. cit.). 



i) Wernham, Journ. of Botany. Vol. XLIX. 1911. p. 77— 82. 



') Schumann, K., u. Engler, A., Nat. Pflanzenfam. IV. 4. p. 80. 



