OF CENTEAL AFRICA. 375 



which the individual belonged was expressed. Thus, the 

 generic name corresponds with the nomen (Cornelius), the 

 name of the section with the cognomen (Scipio), and that 

 of the species with the prsenomen (Publius). 



Without attempting at present to obviate the objections to 

 which the proposed innovation is no doubt liable, I shall 

 proceed to apply it to Cleome pentaphylla. Accord- im 

 ing to my view, the genus Cleome would include Gynan- 

 dropsis, a name which, as that of a section, may be con- 

 tinued to those species of M. De Candolle's genus belong- 

 ing to equinoctial America, and having the common aesti- 

 vation of the family : while Gymnogonia, derived from its 

 remarkable aestivation, may be employed for the section 

 that includes C. pentaphylla, of which the name might be 

 given in the following manner : 



Cleome (Gymnogonia) pentaphylla. This plant, the 

 earliest known species of Cleome, and that on which the 

 genus was chiefly constituted, was found in Bornou. The 

 species is regarded by M. De CandoUe as a native of the West 

 India Islands, and he doubts whether it may not also 

 belong to Egypt and India. On the other hand, I consider 

 it a native of Africa and India, and am not satisfied with 

 the evidence of its being also indigenous to the American 

 Islands, where, though now very common, it has pro- 

 bably been introduced by the negroes, who use it both 

 as a potherb and in medicine. It is not unlikely that M. 

 De CandoUe, in forming his opinion of the original country 

 of this plant, has been in part determined by finding several 

 species of his Gynandropsis decidedly and exclusively 

 natives of the new continent. But if I am correct in sepa- 

 rating these species from the section to which Cleome 

 (Gymnogonia) pentaphylla belongs, this argument, which I 

 have formerly applied to analogous cases,-^ would be clearly 

 in favour of the opinion I have here advanced ; those species 

 of the section with which I am acquainted being un- 

 doubtedly natives of Africa or of India. 



Cleome (Siliquaeia) Arabica [Linn, sp. pi ed. 2, j». 



' TMlcei/'i Congo, p,iSi2. {Ante, P- 156^ 



