LII, COMBRETACES. 337 
LIT. COMBRETACE A. 
Combretacer, whether as climbers often with their grand 
inflorescence, or as moderate-sized trees, constitute one of the 
greatest ornaments of the tropical landscape, making a splendid 
show with their variously-coloured leaves and winged fruits; by 
the abundance of their flowers, especially in the case of the 
species which have red blossoms, they produce a wonderfully 
magnificent effect: they mostly bloom in winter. Combretum 
flammeum Welw., a climbing shrub, which is frequent about 
Sange in Golungo Alto, has its petals and sepals and even its 
bracts coloured bright red, ultimately turning dark blood-red, 
and thus presents the appearance of a burning bush. Few species 
give from dried specimens any adequate idea of the beauty of the 
plants in a growing state. Some species occur only as herbs or 
undershrubs, others as trees even to the height of 80 ft., others 
again either as small shrubs or mighty climbers ; some have a very 
wide distribution, as for instance C’.. constrictum Laws., which occurs 
on both the western and eastern sides of the African continent, 
and which in Angola is diffused in different forms in the interior, 
and is represented in Pungo Andongo by a closely allied species. 
Six species of trees or erect shrubs adorn the forests about 
Pungo Andongo, and of these one with large glossy leaves and 
clusters of blood-red fruits is conspicuous, inhabiting the forests 
of the Cuanza valley from Sansamanda to Quisonda, a distance 
of at least 75 to 80 geographical miles; Combretum constrictum 
Laws., an officinal shrub, occurs very abundantly near Can- 
dumba ; the scandent species with flaming-red flowers are rarer 
than in Golungo Alto and Cazengo; but C’. racemoswm P. Beauv. 
with its silky-glossy leaves and scarlet-red flowers produces a 
splendid contrast. Several species, which are found in masses in 
Golungo Alto, occur in Pungo Andongo singly, and so exercise but 
little effect as a feature in the physiognomy of the vegetation. 
Most species show a considerable variation between the leaves 
of their young shoots and those of the older flower-bearing 
branches, both in shape and indumentum, so that it is often very 
difficult to classify forms of the same species which have sprung 
from the same stock but at different periods or have attained a 
greater age ; frequently even the densest tomentum on the radical 
shoots becomes obsolete on the flowering shrub. The pubescence, 
which is often silky or like felt, and which is whitish or greyish 
on the living plant, assumes on dried specimens a tawny or 
ferruginous colour, rendering the descriptions taken from herba- 
rium specimens mostly erroneous and uccasioning wrong diagnostic 
characters. For instance, C’. holosericewm Sond. is described by 
its author as clothed with tawny hairs, while in nature it shines 
with a silvery-white pubescence on its leaves and branches, and 
the wings of its fruit, described as yellowish, are really of a 
blood-red colour. 
The colour of the petals is remarkably constant in the same 
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