﻿822 



Hab. Banks of the river Formosa, near Agathon, West Tropical 

 Africa. P. 1, ISaiumis, 1786-7. ?Ambas Bay, W. Africa, Mann, 

 Feb. 1861. No. 780 (Herb. Kew) et Cameroons Mta., Mann (Mas. 

 No. 2, Kew). 



The above diagnosis is compiled from Beauvois' original de- 

 scription and figure, with reference also to Solms-Laubach (I. c. 

 p. 27), who states that for his description in Liniwa he had the use 

 of part of Beauvois' own specimens, consisting of half the male 

 spadix preserved in Herb. DeCandolle, with the label, " Don de 

 M. de Lessert, 1821, Herb. Beauv.," and also the female specimen 

 found without a ticket in Herb. Franqueville, but recognised from 

 the fact that the small fragments of a head which formed part of 

 the above-mentioned Delessert specimen fitted on to one of the 

 heads in the Franqueville plant. Solms-Laubach states also that 

 Gaudichaud used Beauvois' types for the descriptions in the Atlas 

 J] unite. He refers to Mann's specimens at Kew as an extra- 

 ordinarily closely related but distinct plant. The Royal Herbarium 

 contains several sheets with portions of leaves, spathes, and a male 

 inflorescence, of a tree said to be 20-25 ft. high. These I have 

 carefully examined. The leaves are strong and rigid, 2£ in. broad 

 near the base, with the margins and back of the midrib armed with 

 strongly curved, very sharply pointed teeth, of which I counted nine 

 in six inches of the midrib; they are about as frequent on the 

 margin above the base, where they are more numerous. On the 

 margin they ascend, but arc recurved on the midrib, as usual, at 

 any rate in the African species. The male inflorescence is L6 in. 

 long, with nine subcylindric spikes 6-8 in. long, densely clothed 

 almost to the base with flowers ; the latter have a stout stalk £ in. 

 long, ending in a subumbellate group of about a dozen stamens, 

 with a filament 1 line long, and a shortly apiculate anther of $ line. 

 The bracts are equal to, or slightly shorter than, the spikes, broadly 

 lanceolate, with a finely denticulate margin, the lowest 8£ in. long 

 by 2 in. broad. There are also present separate leaves, less rigid 

 and thinner than the foliage leaf, with a broad sheathing base, and 

 a linear acuminate upper portion, which I take to have been asso- 

 ciated with the inflorescence ; the teeth are, as just described in 

 the case of the bracts, finer and closer than in the foliage leaf, those 

 on the midrib pointing upwards, like those on the margin. 



In Museum No. 2 is preserved a spike of young fruits labelled 

 "Cameroons Mts., W. Africa," also collected by Mann. The 

 bracts are finely toothed on the margin and midrib, all 

 pointing upwards, as described in the male, and figured by Beauvois 

 for his plant. They are 11-13 in. long, 2 in. or a little more in 

 width above the base, and broadly linear, gradually tapering above 

 to the apex ; the folded midrib is very narrowly keeled ; the ascending 

 and sharply pointed teeth number seven to the inch in the middle 

 of the leaf. The heads are ovoid, about 4| in. long by 3 in. in 

 breadth ; the riper fruits near the top show the elliptical or conico- 

 elliptical long free upper part of those in Beauvois' figures. The 

 irregularly cordate sessile stigma is mostly single, but sometimes 

 two are present. 



