Maximilianea] xn. bixine^e. 37 



XII. BIXINEiE. 



1. MAXIMILIANEA Mart, ex Schrank in Flora ii., part i., 

 p. 451 (1819). Gochlospermum Kunth (1822); Benth. & Hook. f. 

 Gen. PI. i. p. 124. 



1. M. angolensis 0. Kuntze, Bev. Gen. PI. i. p. 44 (Maximiliana). 



CoeMospermum angolense Welw. Apont. p. 566 ; Oliv. Fl. Trop. 

 Air. i. p. 113. 



Golungo Alto. — A tree 10 to 20 ft. high, 9 in. in diam. at the base 

 of its trunk ; branches divaricate ; flowers very handsome, deep-yellow ; 

 fruit capsular, as large as a swan's egg. On rather dry and rocky slopes, 

 between Sange and Oamilungo, at the margins of forests, abundant ; 

 fl. from Feb. to beginning of May, fr. June and August 1856. No. 544. 

 A small richly leafy tree, with palmatifid foliage and handsome yellow 

 flowers, flowering near Cambondo 19 Sept. 1854. Ripe capsules near 

 Canguerasange Nov. 1854. Coll. Carp. 136. Ponte de Felix Simoes ; 

 capsules 5 Nov. 1854. Coll. Carp. 215, 216. 



Ambaca.— Capsules July 1856. Coll. Caep. 217. 



Welwitsch, Apont. I.e., states that this species inhabits the dry hills 

 of Golungo Alto and Ambaca, and also the sandy margins of the river 

 Cuanza. The natives call it " Borotuto," and make from its inner bark 

 coarse but very strong cords ; the trunk abounds in yellow sap. 



In a manuscript note Welwitsch suggests that all the three species 

 of CoeMospermum Kunth, described in Fl. Trop. Africa, I.e., are only 

 varying forms of one species. 



The following (of which there was only one specimen) must be 

 compared with M. tinetoria 0. K., I.e. : — 



Pungo Andongo. — A small tree of 10 to 20 ft. or more, with 

 rather spreading branches ; trunk at the base ranging up to 1£ ft. in 

 diam. ; sometimes a shrub of 2 to 4 ft., branched from the base ; leaves 

 coriaceous, rather rigid ; flowers large, perhaps the largest of the whole 

 genus. In rocky thickets, near Cabondo and Catete, in the fortress 

 of Pungo Andongo, fl. middle of Dec. 1856 ; also at the base of the 

 rocks near Luxillo, and in dampish bushy places at the right bank of 

 the river Cuanza near Candumba ; fl. March 1857. No. 545. 



2. BIXA L.; Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. PI. i. p. 125. 



1. B. Orellana L. Sp. PI., edit. 1, p. 512 (1753) ; Welw. Apont. 

 pp. 555, 588, n. 58; Welw. Synopse pp. 41, 47, n. 129; Oliv. 

 Fl. Trop. Afr. i. p. 114. 



Golungo Alto. — A stout shrub of 5 to 8 ft., branched from the 

 base, richly leafy ; leaves by no means always quite entire, as Endlicher, 

 Gen. PL p. 918 (1840), states, but those in the middle of the flowering 

 branches usually and almost constantly bidendate at the base, with 

 far-protruded acute teeth causing the leaf to be palmatifid or lobed ; 

 flowers rose-purple ; outer 2 or 3 sepals herbaceous, the rest petaloid ; 

 petals twice as long as the sepals; anthers quite obtuse and not inflected 

 in a hooked manner at the apex ; style inflected in a hooked manner ; 

 capsule ovoid-conical, not compressed. Cultivated and half wild at 

 the borders of forests and along the banks of rivulets, not uncommon 

 near Sange and among the mountains of Serra de Alta Queta ; occa- 

 sionally in thickets near Canguerasange, fl. 3 Dec. 1854 ; in bushy 

 places of Queta, fl. July 1 855 ; in forests at the river Cuanza, along 

 the base ofthe mountains of Queta; fl. and young fr. Jan. 1856. No. 531. 



