Symphonia] xxi. guttifeb^e. 59. 



XXI. GUTTIFER.E. 



These are stately evergreen trees, although few species reach a 

 great height. Symphonia, globulifera L. f . is one of the most beau- 

 tiful trees of Upper Angola, on account of its deep-red flowers and 

 shining leaves. The GuttiferEe appear very seldom to bear fruit ; 

 the only species which Welwitsch found with fruit is Gwcinia 

 angolensis Vesque. They have firm fine-grained wood, white and 

 sometimes of a rose-red hue, and very durable, especially that of 

 the latter species. 



Welwitsch states that he saw a species of Calophyllwm culti- 

 vated around Sierra Leone, at Freetown, but that it was not in 

 flower, and the specimens of the leaves which he collected became 

 rotten during his illness at sea. 



1. SYMPHONIA L. f. ; Benth. k Hook. f. Gen. PI. i. p. 173. 



1. S. globulifera L. f. Suppl. Sp. PI. p. 302 (1781); Oliv. Fl. 

 Trop. Afr. i. p. 163 ; Vesque in DC. Mon. Phan. viii. p. 227 (1893) ; 

 var. africana Vesque, I.e., p. 230 (1893). 



Aetinostigma speciosum Welw. Apont. p. 560, under n. 139. 

 Actinostigma (sp.), Welw. Synopse p. 9, n. 12. 



A tree with the habit of a laurel, copiously flowering, 15 to 35 ft. 

 high, with trunk 1 to 1| ft. diam. near the base, exuding a yellow 

 sap like drops of gum, patently branched ; leaves coriaceous in the 

 dry state, penninerved, not punctate, of an opaque dark-green colour 

 and moderately glossy above, pale-green beneath ; calyx ebracteolate, 

 persistent, comprising 5 very obtuse imbricate segments ; petals 5, 

 inserted at the external base of the hypogynous disk, alternating 

 with the calyx-segments, sinistrorsely or dextrorsely convolute in a 

 globose form, loosely cohering even at the time of flowering, scarlet ; 

 disk elevated, cyathiform, thick, yellow, undivided ; stamens com- 

 bined in a scarlet tube at first cylindrical and soon ventricose at 

 the base, inserted at the internal base of the disk ; tube 5-lobed ;. 

 lobes broad-linear, flat at the base, triquetrous at the apex, inclined 

 on the sinuses of the stigma, each outside below the apex bearing 

 3 anthers; anthers linear, parallel, adnate, extrorse, 2-celled, bi- 

 arsitate at the apex, scarlet ; ovary included in the staminal tube, 

 free, 5-celled ; cells pluri-ovulate ; style very short, thick, topped by 

 a 5-radiate stigma, rays yellow, after the time of flowering stellate, 

 patent, their sinuses occupied by the triquetrous segments of the 

 staminal tube which are bent inwards towards the centre of the 

 stigma. Fruit not seen though subsequently looked for. 



G-Olungo Alto. — In warm spots of deep valleys in the primitive 

 woods of Alta Queta, above N-delle (Undelle), fl. middle of April 

 1856. Native name " Mungundo." Sporadic. No. 1052. 



2. PENTADESMA Sabine; Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. PI. i. p. 174. 



1. P. butyracea Sabine in Trans. Hort. Soc. Lond. v. p. 45F 

 (1824); Oliv., I.e., p. 164; Vesque, I.e., p. 247. 



St. Thomas' Island. — Local name " Pao Ova," or " Obi." Probably- 

 collected in Dec. 1860. No. 6754. Determination doubtful. 



