Melochia] xxiv. STERCULiACEiE. 91 



3. M. Welwitschii Hiern, sp. n. 



Apparently a robust almost shrubby herb, divaricately branched; 

 branchlets shaggy with long spreading hairs. Upper internodes 

 ranging up to 2 in. long, mostly shorter than the leaves. Leaves 

 ovate, the upper ones rather narrowly so, rather acute at the 

 apex, rounded truncate or somewhat cordate at the base, serrate, 

 scattered with appressed hairs on both surfaces, thin, 1 to 4£ in. 

 long by ^ to 3 in. wide ; petiole shaggy with long spreading hairs, 

 ranging up to lg in. long; stipules linear-lanceolate, ^ in. long. 

 Inflorescence axillary and subterminal, short, crowded ; pedicels 

 very short ; bracteoles linear-filiform, long-ciliate, § to f in. long. 

 Flowers white, § in. long ; calyx £ in. long, campanulate, thinly 

 pilose, shortly 5-cleft ; lobes from a broad base subulate. Petals 

 obovate, glabrous, g in. long. Stamens £ in. long, glabrous, falling 

 short of the style-branches; filaments united for most of their 

 length into a tube, adhering to the petals at the base ; anthers 

 oblong, about -£$ inch long. Pistil J in. long ; 'ovary with long 

 erect hairs below the deeply 5-lobed style. Fruit subglobose, £ in. 

 in diam., pilose, tipped with the remains of the style, longitudinally 

 5-furrowed, loculicidal. Seeds glabrous, -^ in. long. 



Cazengo. — In marshes by the small lake Logoa do Moambege, near 

 Dalatando ; fl. and fr. June 1855. No. 4719. 



8. LEPTONYCHIA Turcz. ; Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. PI. i. p. 237. 



1. L. urophylla Welw. ex Mast, in Oliv. Fl. Trop. Afr. i. p. 238. 



Golungo Alto. — An evergreen shrub, 3 to 4£ ft. high, occasionally 

 attaining 6 ft., with patent branches ; leaves coriaceous or chartaceous- 

 membranous, rather hard, dull-green but little glossy and with 

 impressed nerves above, very bright green, glossy and with raised 

 nerves below ; flowers greenish, hermaphrodite ; calyx pentagonal- 

 cylindrical, sepals 5, valvate in aestivation, deciduous; petals 5, alternate 

 to and much shorter than the sepals, obovate-circular, whitish, tomen- 

 tellous, erect, rather concave, somewhat cohering at their margins ; 

 capsule obovoid-clavate or clavate, of the size of a large hazel-nut, 

 grey-tomentose all over, 3-4-celled, 3-4-valved. In the elevated dense 

 very shady primitive forests of the Sobato de Bumba and of Quilombo, 

 especially about Fontes de Capopa, abundant ; fl. Jan. and beginning 

 of August 1855. No. 1365. 



9. WALTHEMA L. ; Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. PI. i. p. 224. 



1. W. americana L. Sp. PI. ed. 1, p. 673 (1753); Masters in 

 Oliv. Fl. Trop. Afr. i. p. 235. 



Loanda. — A perennial herb, with woody many-headed rootstock^ 

 erect branched virgate branches, and yellow flowers turning dark- 

 purple in drying ; on dry and rocky bushy plains, towards the south 

 of the Loanda district, at Museque de Luiz Gomes, abundant ; fl. July 

 and August 1854. No. 4724. A branched undershrub, 2 to 4 ft. high, 

 with polymorphous leaves ; in dry flat fields, almost everywhere 

 throughout the district, abundant ; at Imbondeiro dos Lobos, in flower- 

 bud, March 1858. Nos. 4714, 4723. 



Libongo. — An undershrub, 2 to 3£ ft. high ; stems csespitose at the 

 base, afterwards virgately branched ; flowers yellow ; in rather moist 

 thickets, at the banks of the river Lifune ; fl. Sept. 1858. No. 4722. 



