I'archoTianfhus] lxxi. coMPoerr^. 555 



aromatic, excellent. No. 3524. A small tree, 8 to 15 ft. high, or even 

 more, forming, together with another kind of tree, little forests in 

 Sobato de Mumpulla, abundant ; fl.-bud and male and female fl. Oct. 

 1859. A species of Viscum grew on this tree. Nos. 3522 and 6745. 

 In the male flowers the involucre 4-lobed, with broadly ovate lobes ; 

 corolla white, 5- or very rarely 4-lobed, shaggy outside, smooth 

 inside ; stamens 5, exserted ; style far exserted, rather fleshy ; stigma 

 scarcely divided ; ovary abortive ; nectary apparently none. Local 

 name " Pdo Quicongo." Nos. 3523, 3525-7. 



Quicongo is a name used in a collective sense in the markets at 

 Benguella, Loanda, and Ambriz, for various aromatic woods. The 

 Quicango of Huilla is a tree which, in company with that called Nooha 

 or Noxa {Parinari Mobola) and some species of Leguminosse and 

 Proteacese, constitute the principal part of the forest in the delightful 

 plateau of Huilla ; it occurs most abundantly from the top of the 

 Serra de Xella to the neighbourhood of the great lake of Ivautala, 

 forming in some places by itself extensive forests which recall the 

 olive woods in Portugal ; the greatest height here attained by this 

 tree is 20 to 25 ft. with its trunk rarely exceeding a foot thick ; but 

 there is reason to expect that, as with the other constituents of the 

 forest, it would under other circumstances become more developed and 

 assume larger dimensions. The principal causes of the successive 

 checks on the arboreal vegetation of these regions are not only the 

 destructive forest fires which the natives annually make for the purpose 

 of obtaining succulent pasturage for their numerous flocks of sheep, 

 but also the repeated invasions of the Munauos, whose vast encamp- 

 ments are always constructed at the cost of the extensive forests. 



The timber is of an olive colour, becoming sometimes dark brown 

 or dark purple, of fine grain, very compact and durable, and thus very 

 suitable for turnery, furniture, and other domestic articles, with the 

 special recommendation of a camphor-like aroma, which enables the 

 natives to prepare tonic and stomachic infusions from its powder, so 

 that it is met with under different names in nearly all the quita7idas 

 (markets) on the coast, and fragments of it are suspended from the 

 necks of nearly all negro travellers in Angola. (Welw. Synopse, p. 16, 

 n. 41). 



21. PLACUS Lour. Fl. Oochinck p. 496 (1790). 

 Blumea DC. in GuUl. Arch. Bot. ii. p. 514 (1833) ; Benth. k 

 Hook. f. Gen. PI. ii. p. 289. 



1. P. laeerus 0. Kuntze, Eev. Gen. PL i. p. 356 (1891). 



Gonysa lacera Burm. f. Fl. Ind. p. 180, t. 59, fig. 1 (1768). 

 Blumea lacera DO. in Wight, Oontrib. Bot. Ind. p. 14 (1834); 

 0. & H. in Oliv. Fl. Trop. Afr. iii. p. 322. 



Ambeiz. — Root conical, apparently annual ; stem with crowded 

 leaves at the base ; f r. No. 3911. 



Baeea do Bengo. — An annual erect herb, with yellowish flowers. 

 In palm-groves between Quifandongo and Barro do Bengo ; fl. Dec. 

 1853. Antiscorbutic. No. 3896. 



GoLUNGO Alto. — Herbaceous, 2 to 4 ft. high, the whole plant very 

 pleasantly fragrant with a peculiar aroma. In marshy meadows near 

 the base of Alto Queta, and in damp places along the left bank of 

 the river Coango ; fl. and fr. Feb. 1855. Called " Quitoco anti- 

 scorbutico." No. 3897. Between Trombeta and Oabondo ; fl. and fr. 

 Sept. 1854. No. 3898. 



