OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 277 



Crateva Adansonii [Be Cancl. prodr. I, p. 243) is 

 in the collection from Bornou. This species is established 

 by M. De Candolle upon a specimen in M. de Jussieu's 

 herbarium, found in Senegal by Adanson, and is supposed 

 to differ from all the other species in having its foliola 

 equal at the base. I have examined the specimen in M. 

 de Jussieu's herbarium, in vrhich, however, the leaves 

 not being fully developed, I vras unable to satisfy myself 

 respecting their form, but in a specimen, also from Senegal, 

 which I received from M. Desfontaines, the lateral foliola, 

 though having manifestly unequal sides, are but slightly 

 unequal at the base, and the inequality consists in a some- 

 what greater decurrence of the lamina on the anterior or 

 inner margin of the footstalk. As Avell as can be deter- 

 mined, in very young leaves, this is also the case in the speci- 

 men from Bornou ; and it is manifestly so in my specimen 

 of C. Iceta, which appears to belong to the same species. 



Crateva lata was founded by M. De Candolle on a plant 

 from Senegal, communicated by M. Gay, from whom I 

 also received a specimen in 1824, with the remark that it 

 was not different from C. Adansonii. In that specimen [221 

 the flowers are male with an imperfect pistillum- ; in the 

 plant from Bornou they are hermaphrodite, with elongated 

 filaments ; and in the specimen received from M. Desfon- 

 taines they are also hermaphrodite, but the stamina, though 

 apparently perfect^ are fewer in number and shorter than 

 the stipes of the ovarium. I have observed, however, the 

 flowers to be in like manner polygamous in some other 

 species of Crateva, belonging both to India and America, 

 a fact which materially lessens the dependence to be placed 

 on characters taken from the number and length of the 

 stamina in this genus. 



Crateva Adansonii, it would appear, then, is the only 

 known species of the African continent, for C. fragrans does 

 not belong to the genus, and it will be difficult to distinguish 

 this African Crateva from a plant which seems to be the 

 most general species of India ; except that in the latter, as 

 in all the other species of the genus, the inequality of the 

 lateral foliola, which is also more marked, consists in the 



