120 xxxi. simarubejE. [Agialid 



Mossamedes.— A small tree, 6 to 10 ft. high, with quite the habit of 

 some Olacinese ; trunk erect ; crown intricately much-branched ; flowers 

 greenish ; fruit scarlet, size of an acorn. A small-leaved form. Fre- 

 quent on wooded slopes along the river Maiombo about Pomangala, 

 elsewhere rarer or almost absent ; always in company with Capparidese ; 

 fl. end of Oct. 1859. No. 1706. 



In Angola the variety inhabits exclusively the littoral regions (Welw. 

 Apont. p. 560, under n. 141). 



XXXII. OCHNACE^E. 



This Family, although not numerous, is remarkable for the 

 elegance of its habit, the peculiar lustre of its foliage and the 

 brilliancy of its flowers and fruits, as well as by the large number 

 of some of its species, which in certain hilly districts, in conjunc- 

 tion with species of Dichapetalum, E-ubiacese, and Filices, constitute 

 the underwood of the forests. See Welwitsch, Apont. p. 565, n. 157. 



1. OCHNA L. ; Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. PI. i. p. 317. 



1. 0. membranacea Oliv. Fl. Trop. Afr. i. p. 316. 



Golungo Alto. — A shrub, 3 to 5 ft. high ; branches divaricate, often 

 horizontal or pendulous, slender ; leaves not always evergreen, 3 to 4 

 by 1 to 2 in. ; petioles about -J in. long ; stipules filamentous, long, 

 caducous ; flowers paniculate, terminal and axillary ; panicles gracefully 

 nodding ; calyx 5-sepalous, imbricate, the 3 outer segments herbaceous, 

 the inner ones sub-corolline, reflexed about the time of flowering ; 

 petals 5, yellow, obovate-spathulate, not unguiculate, equal, inserted 

 on the rather fleshy torus, imbricate in »stivation, spreading-reflexed 

 at the time of flowering ; stamens more than 20, inserted on the torus 

 above the petals, biseriate, all equal and fertile ; filaments more or less 

 cylindrical, free, dilated at the apex into a little receptacle, inserted on 

 which is found the cylindrical-compressed erect 2-celled anther as 

 long as the filament and dehiscing at the apex by 2 round pores ; carpels 

 5 or 6, whitish and almost hyaline at the apex ; style hyaline, rather 

 compressed, exceeding the stamens, at the apex incurved and crowned 

 with a green peltate-capitate obscurely-lobed stigma. In very shady 

 places, near waterfalls, among the mountains of Alto Queta, in flower- 

 bud in August ; fl. Oct. 1855. No. 4596. Waterfall, river Cuanza ; in 

 flower-bud August 1855. No. 6704. In the shade of primitive forests, 

 end of July 1855. No. 67046. (The last two doubtfully determined.) 



Var. rubescens. 



An erect shrub, 4 to 6 ft. high ; leaves 3| to 7 by 1 to 1\ in. ; 

 petioles about g in. or occasionally as much as § in. long ; stipules 

 | to | in. long, compressed-filamentous, deciduous ; flowers orange- 

 red; calyx enlarged after flowering, spreading, deep blood-red, 

 1| to \\ in. diain. ; stamens indefinite; filaments filiform; disk 

 ample, depresso-hemispherical, spongy-turgid, greenish-purple ; 

 fruit-carpels 5 to 3, rather large, nearly \ in. in the longest diam., 

 reniform, black, smooth, transversely set in the sinuses, which 

 are spotted with white ; putamen crustaceous, 1 -seeded ; seeds 

 reniform, nearly \ in. in diam., umbilicate in the sinus; testa 

 thin, marked outside with crowded dark nerves which run from 

 the umbilicus toward the back. 



