PUosti/les] cvi. CYTiNACB^. 909 



persistent ; flower subsessile at the bottom and centre of the 

 involucre, bright rosy-bloodred throughout, |- to ^ in. high, bud- 

 shaped, braoteate; bracts several, 8 to 10, scale-like, broadly 

 ovate, concave, obtuse, bright bloodred, arranged in an ascending 

 spiral, covering the perianth of the flowers, whether of the male 

 flowers at the time of the flowering or of the female flowers both 

 during the flowering and during the swelling of the ovary. 

 Perianth of the male flowers 4- to 7- or even 8-phyllous ; the 

 segments obtuse, spongy-callous at the base inside, imbricate in 

 the bud, erect-spreading during the flowering, incurved at the 

 apex ; corona of the throat 4- to 8-angled, the angles prominent 

 and alternating with the segments of the perianth ; staminal 

 column subconical-cylindrical, truncate at the apex, sheathing 

 the column of the free style ; anthers contiguous, sessile, below 

 the apex of the staminal column ; pollen copious, whitish ; style- 

 column cylindrical ; stigma hemispherical-peltate, exserted, closing 

 the cavity of the staminal column ; ovary obsolete ; all parts of 

 the flower at first rosy purple, soon bloodred and marcescent, 

 afterwards reddish yellow, always more or less fleshy, and the 

 flower when rubbed abounding in a red carmine juice which 

 imparts to paper a tolerably fast colour. In the female flowers 

 the buds (and also the expanded flowers) are a little longer and 

 narrower than in the male flowers, ovoid-conical and not globose 

 as in the male ; perianth almost completely covered by the scale- 

 like somewhat fleshy bracts, adhering to the ovary, 6-phyllous ; 

 the segments scarcely ever well expanded, resembling the bracts 

 in colour, consistency and shape, quite glabrous, spongy-callous at 

 the base inside ; corona of the throat not flat but prismatic, analo- 

 gous to the septiform membranes in Cytinus, 6-angled, the angles 

 prominent and alternating with the segments of the perianth; 

 ovary half inferior, globose-elUpsoidal, unilocular; placentation 

 parietal ; ovules numerous ; style from the centre of the corona 

 erect, broadly conical, viscid-fleshy ; stigma hemispherical-capitate, 

 rarely 2- very rarely 3-umbonate, tubercular, very delicately 

 wrinkled ; seeds very many, bright flesh-coloured, wrapped in a 

 viscid material, scarcely arranged in regular order, soft, slightly 

 crustaceous. 



HxilLLA. — Parasitical on branchlets of the Panda tree, Berlinia panir 

 culata Benth. (Welw. herb. no. 577), the male plant seen only on this 

 tree ; in the elevated (5500 ft.) forests of Morrode Monino, sparingly; 

 male fl. 10 May 1860. No. 5296. On branchlets of the Panda tree, 

 Brachystegia spicceformis Benth. (Welw. herb. no. 583) ; in the same 

 neighbourhood as the male plants but rarer ; female fl. 12 May 1860. 

 No. 529. 



The plant seems to be very rare, for during the seven months during 

 which Welwitsoh was almost always and even daily traversing the 

 forests chiefly composed of Leguminous trees, he found it only on a few 

 Leguminous trees, all of which belonged to those called Panda trees, 

 once on a glabrous kind and a second time male plants on a tomentose 

 variety of Panda. 



A small bread-coloured CurcuUo attacks and quickly destroys the 



