194 XLIV. LEGUMINOS.E. 



all the regions, but is least frequent in the littoral region, 

 increasing gradually towards the interior of the country, and is 

 represented in the mountainous region by a large number of 

 arborescent specimens which contribute a conspicuous feature to 

 its vegetation. In the coast region the shrubby Mimosa pigra L. 

 abounds in moist soils, and in dry places dense low forests are 

 sometimes composed almost exclusively of the very elegant Dichro- 

 stachys nutans Benth., while the more elevated hills are in many 

 places covered with thin woods of spiny Acacias called Espinheiros 

 (thorns) ; in the lower parts of the mountainous regions a second 

 species of the genus, D. platycarpa Welw., occurs. Gigalobium 

 scandens, which has pods 3 or 4 feet long, and a woody climber 

 with pentagonal stem (Acacia pennata Willd., var. dolichosperma 

 Oliv.), occur as gigantic climbers in Golungo Alto and Cazengo. 

 In the highland region the sub-order is also abundant, but it 

 diminishes, little by little, from Pedras de Guinga in Pun go 

 Andongo eastwards, especially in number of individuals. The 

 greater part exude in quantity gums of various quality, and the 

 bark of several, especially of the tree called "Muzemba" (Alhizzia 

 coriaria Welw.), furnishes excellent material for tanning leather ; 

 the trees which furnish gum arabic are most frequent south of 

 the river Cuanza ; the timber is only valuable when well advanced 

 in age. Only one species is cultivated by the natives, and that 

 rarely ; it is the thorn Acacia farnesiana Willd., which is also 

 cultivated in Portugal for the sake of the very agreeable fragrance 

 of its flowers ; the negroes, however, grow it for its pods, which 

 constitute the chief ingredient in the preparation of a black dye 

 with which they stain the cloths called "Mabella" or " Mabela" 

 made from palm-leaves. In the forests of Pungo Andongo Parkia 

 Jtlicoidea Welw. occurs, but the seeds could not be obtained 

 because the monkeys, so numerous in the country, devour all the 

 pods while they are yet green. Parkia africana Br., a handsome 

 tree, which is indigenous in the country north of the equator from 

 Senegambia to the Gaboon, well deserves to be introduced into 

 Angola for the sake of the edible seeds which it produces. (See 

 Welwitsch, Apontamentos, pp. 572 to 576, nn. 174 to 176.) 



1. Sub-order Papilionace^;. 

 1. LOTONONIS DC; Benth. & Hook.f. Gen. PI. i. p. 476. 



1. I. tenuis Baker in Oliv. II. Trop. Afr. ii. p. 5 (1871). 

 Mossamedes. — A prostrate-ascending annual herb with rather small 



yellowish flowers. Rather rare, in gravelly places by the river Bero ; 

 very sparingly fl. and fr. middle of July 1859. No. 1900. 



2. L. clandestina Benth. in Hook. Lond. Journ. Bot. ii. p. 607 

 (1843) ; Baker, I.e., p. 6. 



Mossamedes. — A slender brittle silky-villous annual herb ; stem and 

 branches prostrate ; petiole flattened-dilated ; standard and wings 

 rather deep-yellow ; keel pale-yellow, much prolonged, twice as long as 

 the wings. Rather rare, in sandy maritime and sub-maritime places 



