980 DR THOMAS R. FRASER ON STROPHANTHUS HISPIDUS. 



projects from the fruit-stalk almost at a right angle with it, the two follicles forming 

 together a nearly straight line, whose extremities are the apices of the follicles (see Plate 

 IV. figs. 3, 4). The mature follicles have a general fusiform shape, but frequently they 

 taper fairly regularly from the base nearly to the apex, and so present a lanceolate con- 

 tour. The middle portion, however, is generally thicker than either extremity, and the 

 base is always much thicker than the apex. The latter is terminated by an irregular bifid 

 disc or expansion, measuring transversely about T Vths by T \ths of an inch, the sulcus of 

 which is at right angles to the ventral surface of the follicle. This bifid expansion may 

 be produced by an indentation remaining after the style has fallen off, or, in the event 

 of the style being persistent, it may represent the cleft apex of the stigma. Each follicle 

 has two surfaces ; one rounded and occupying the greater part of the circumference, and 

 the other flattened, concave, or even wedge-shaped, and representing the surface originally 

 in apposition to the follicle developed along with it. 



The rounded surface is of a dark greyish-brown colour, smooth and fleshy-looking in 

 the undried follicles, but rough and marked by numerous small and nearly white spots* 

 in the dried follicles (see Plate IV. fig. 3). The flattened or concave surface is in the 

 dried follicles of a pale brown nearly white colour. It consists of a thin parchment-like 

 and brittle membrane, whose margins are depressed below the contiguous margins of the 

 rounded surface, and it presents a central longitudinal slit, and occasionally, when the 

 follicle is very ripe, several slits at different parts of its surface, through which the silky 

 hairs of the seed-appendages project here and there. 



The dimensions and weights of the entire and dry mature follicles vary considerably. 

 Of sixteen sent by Buchanan from the Shire district, it was found that the average length 

 was 11*2 inches, the average diameter at the middle 1*2 inch, and the average weight 377 

 grains : but the extremes were represented by a follicle 12-e, inches in length, 1 inch in 

 diameter, and 512 grains in weight ; and by one 9^ inches in length, 0"85 inch in diameter, 

 and 160 grains in weight. 



Only a few entire follicles have, however, been brought to this country. The great 

 bulk of those imported have had the outer part of the pericarp, comprising the epi- and 

 mesocarp scraped off before importation, and while they are in a fresh and soft con- 

 dition (see Plate II. fig. I.). They are thus customarily treated in Africa to enable them 

 more easily to be dried and stored for use; and, when dried, they are tied together with 

 ribbon-like strips of palm leaves, so disposed as to encircle the follicles in pairs. Long 

 bands of follicles arranged parallel to each other are in this way produced, which are then 

 rolled into cylindrical bundles each containing from two to three hundred follicles. 



The scraped follicles retain the general form of the entire ones, but their distal 

 extremities are not terminated by the bifid expansions found in the follicles that have not 

 been scraped. Many of them are fusiform, others lanceolate, and a few almost cylindrical 

 in shape. They also possess a rounded or convex dorsal, and a flattened or concave ventral 



* Dr Macfarlane has suggested to me that these spots are scars marking the positions of the roots of the fallen off 

 hairs, formerly attached to the carpels. 



