Melanthera] lxxi. composite. 583 



5. M. cuanzensis Hiern, sp. n. 



A perennial herb ; stem 2 to 4 ft. high, mostly decumbent on 

 neighbouring shrubs, subscandent, pallid, 4-angular, furrowed, 

 puberulous ; branches few, lax, opposite, scattered with whitish 

 short scurfy hairs and a few short strigulose hairs intermixed, 

 scarcely scabrid ; leaves opposite, spreading, lance-shaped, rather 

 obtuse and minutely muoronate at the apex, broadly cordate or 

 subreniform at the base, membranous but rather rigid, rather 

 distantly crenulate-denticulate, scabrid scattered with short 

 whitish strigulose hairs and deep green above, rather softly 

 strigulose paler and reticulate beneath, li to 5|- in. long by ^ to 

 1^ in. broad or rather longer ; petiole ^ to 1 in. long, strigulose 

 with short whitish hairs, soai'cely scabrid ; capitula hemispherical, 

 radiate, heterogamous, homochromous, about f in. long, opposite 

 or alternate, axillary or terminal, on peduncles 3 to 6 in. long ; 

 involucral scales pauciseriate, imbricate, free to the base, ovate 

 pointed and strigose on the back or the innermost ones oblong 

 and acuminate, ciliate, flat, the outermost ones rather the 

 shortest ; flowers wholly golden-yellow ; ray-florets about |- in. 

 long, uniseriate, female, fertile, subtended by the innermost 

 scales of the involucre, ligulate ; the ligule oblong, f in. long, 

 marked with several parallel longitudinal nerves, bifid at the 

 apex, glabrous above, pilose along the nerves beneath ; style bifid ; 

 the ovary compressed-subquadrangular, puberulous along the 

 lateral edges, otherwise glabrous or minutely puberulous obovate, 

 yY in. long, subtruncate at the apex, tipped with about ten 

 scabrid somewhat unequal erect pale aristse which arise from a 

 ring at the apex smaller than the breadth of the ovary ; disk- 

 florets multiseriate, tubular, regular, J in. long, hermaphrodite ; 

 the corolla ^ in. long, puberulous outside, with 5 short ovate- 

 deltoid lobes ; the anthers dusky, with pale ovate appendages at 

 the apex, ecaudate and obtuse at the base ; style-branches rather 

 short, somewhat compressed, with short pointed appendages at the 

 apex ; ovary ^-^ in. long, compressed-quadrangular, oblanceolate, 

 puberulous along the sides and around the apex, scattered with 

 minute hairs or glabrous elsewhere, subtruncate at the apex, 

 tipped with about 10 to 15 unequal scabrid pale arista; more 

 or less equalling the ovary in length and arising around or 

 from the apex of the ovary; achenes obversely pyramidal, 

 slightly compressed, angular, glabrate except the somewhat 

 rounded or subtruncate apex, -^ in. long ; pappus consisting 

 of several erect pallid scabrid more or less deciduous aristae 

 which equal or exceed the achene in length and arise about a 

 thickened ring narrower than the whole achene; receptacle 

 convex, furnished with obovate-acuminate scabrid-ciliolate folded 

 scales which embrace the disk-florets and are marked with 

 parallel longitudinal lines. 



PuNGO Andongo. — By wooded thickets along the right bank of the 

 river Cuanza ; fl. and fr. Dec. 1866. No. 3554. 



