712 Lxxxv. GENTiANBa;. [Swertia 



HuiLLA. — A slender, erect, very bitter, annual herb, with the habit 

 of Ophelia ; stem usually branched, subangular, somewhat swelled at 

 the nodes, about a foot high ; leaves opposite, lanceolate-linear, semi- 

 amplexicaul, 1 -nerved, obtusely keeled beneath, erect, bright green as 

 well as the stem and branches, the upper ones gradually narrower ; 

 flowers corymbose-paniculate, numerous, strongly resembling those of 

 a Stdlaria ; calyx 5-parfcite ; the segments lanceolate, narrow, flat, 

 l-nerved, cuspidate ; corolla rotate, deeply 5-lobed ; the lobes ovate- 

 oblong, milk-white outside, streaked with purple lines inside, twice as 

 long as the calyx, glandular a little above the base with greenish 

 geminate depressions which have long cilia at their edges ; stamens 5, 

 inserted on the very short tube of the corolla ; filaments a little 

 widened and almost cohering in a, ring at the base ; anthers in the 

 living state purple, turning green in drying, typically introrse, after 

 the flowering extrorse, not twisted ; ovary unilocular, cylindrical, sub- 

 compressed ; stigma sessile, broadly bilabiate, terminal, large ; the lips 

 diverging at the time of the flower, at length somewhat reflected 

 at the margin ; ovules at both sides of the sutures, very numerous, 

 horizontal ; placentas sutural, geminate, distinct, spongy-fleshy ; 

 capsule unilocular, compressed-cylindrical, bivalved, obtuse ; seeds 

 numerous, comparatively large for the order, globose, densely tuber- 

 culate ; the tubercles minute, hemispherical, smooth, rather shining. 

 In somewhat sandy damp wooded pastures in Morro de LopoUo, 

 between 5200 and 6600 ft. alt., very plentiful ; fl. and fr. beginning 

 of April and 4 May 1860. No. 1515. At Humpata ; fl. and fr. May 

 1860. Coll. Carp. 51. 



All the parts of this plant are very bitter ; the natives, however, do 

 not make any use of it, nor do they give a special name to it ; but 

 Welwitsch considered it quite equal or even superior in its medicinal 

 qualities to the Fel da terra of Portugal, that is, Centaurium majus 

 (Erythrma major HofEm. & Link), and capable of affording a substitute 

 for Gentiana lutea L. 



LXXXVI. BORAGINE^. 



1. COEDIA Plum., L. ; Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. PI. ii. p. 838. 



The wood which the negroes of Africa, in the most diverse districts 

 and various tribes, make use of for procuring fire by means of rubbing 

 sticks together, belongs to the genus Cordia. Thus, in Golungo Alto 

 and around Ambriz, in Songo and in the interior of Loanda, on the 

 river Cuanzo and likewise in Benguella, when desirous of making a 

 fire, the negroes nearly everywhere pointed out to Welwitsch trees of 

 this genus as those best adapted for the purpose. 



1. C. rubra Hochst. in PI. Schimp. Abyss, iii. n. 1582 {U.i., 

 1844) and ex A. Eich. Fl. Abyss, ii. p. 82 (1851). 



Baeea de Dande and Loanda. — A small tree, 8 or rarely 12 ft. 

 high, usually in the form of a shrub, but when well developed always 

 tree-like, with a single slender trunk and a dilated head ; leaves 

 resembling those of an alder, pallid green, very rough above, more 

 or less softly shaggy beneath ; flowers milk-white or yellow-whitish ; 

 drupe baccate, ovoid-globose, sordidly cinnabar-red or orange-scarlet, 

 very viscid, fleshy, monopyrenous, mucronate with the remains of the 

 style, seated on the 5- to 7-toothed calyx ; putamen very hard, bony, 

 4-celied or rarely by abortion 3- or 2-celled, quadrangular-pyramidal, 

 truncate at the apex ; the seeds solitary in the cells. In rough hilly 



