12 
Forest Flora of Portuguese East Africa. 
1 6. ONCOBA. Flowers more or less polygamous ; sepals 3-4, free or coherent below ; petals S' 10 or rnore, often large and showy ; stamens numerous, free ; ovary i-celled ; 
ovules numerous on 2-10 parietal placenta. Fruit dehiscent on indehiscent, i-celled or spuriously several-celled, many seeded. Trees or shrubs with alternate 
simple leaves. 
O. spinosa, Forsk. Vcrn. names— 4, 5, 6, Tongwaan and Enchowana. Shrub or tree; sometimes 12 metres high with stem 50 c.m. dianv; more frequently much 
branched shrub. Branches warty, often bearing axillary spines 3-5 cm. long; leaves alternate, widely lanceolate, acute, crenate or dentate, somewhat rounded 
below, and with slender petioles 1-2 c.m. long. Flowers solitary or few, terminal on short side branches. Calyx deeply 4-fid ; petals irregular in number, 3 c.m. 
long; stigma peltate; style 1 c.m. long; fruit globose or slightly depressed, 3-5 c.m. in diameter retaining the pistil which increases to 2-5 c.m. in length. The native 
name has reference to the practice of ricksha boys using the hard shells as rattles on their ankles, as also do others at dances. Tropical Shire River, Zambesia and 
Quelimane ; extra-tropical Inhambane, M’Chopes and Lourenzo Marques, nowhere plentiful ; occurs also in Natal, Nile-land and West Africa. 
Plate II. B. 1, Fruiting Branch ; 2, Flower. 
O. Kraussiana, Planch. Vcrn. na?nes — 5, Setchelo; 13, um-nanmami. A small unarmed tree or shrub with large white flowers. Leaves oblong, obtuse, entire, 
glabrous, 5-12 c.m. long. Flowers solitary or 2 or 3 together on short branchlets. Sepals 3; petals 10-12, 5 c.m. long; stamens many, filaments white; fruit 
globose 2-5 c.m. diameter, stalked. Flowers either staminal or perfect. See “Natal Plants,” Plate 72. Lourenzo Marques and M’Chopes; occurs also in Natal. 
O. Petersiana, Oliv. Vern. names — 4, 5, 6, Gutani or Magutani. A softly pubescent shrub, 2-8 feet high ; leaves obovate or oblong, 8-12 c.m. long ; penducles terminal 
or axillary. Lobes of the stigma subulate. Fruit ovoid, nearly terete, at first pubescent, and separating into numerous narrow valves when ripe ; seeds scarlet not 
bedded in pulp. Tropical Zambesia; extra-tropical Lourenzo Marques and M’Chopes. 
O. tettensis, Oliv. Vern. name— 10, Makakara. A pubescent shrub with obovate or oblong undulate leaves 3-5 c.m. long; flowers axillary; calyx 3-partite ; lobes of 
the stigma minute ; fruit ovoid-globose, shortly tomentose, with numerous longitudinal furrows. Tete district, and at Arenga, Magenja da Costa. 
O. Kirkii, Oliv. A glabrous shrub from Rovuma Bay, with obovate leaves, 7-15 c.m. long; flowers axillary; fruit ovoid, terete, glabrous, shortly pointed. 
O. sulcata. (New species.) 1 Vern. name — 10, Nyamo-nyambea. Large shrub, rusty pubescent on young growth. Leaves ovate, oblong or oblong-lanceolate 7-12 c.m. 
long, 2- 5 c - m - wide, acute, usually rounded below, thin, roughly and irregularly toothed, 3-nerved at the base, glabrous or glabrescent except on the veins below ; 
petioles 1-2 c.m. long Flowers 1-3 together, terminal, the bud in the upper axil continuing the growth. Flowers not seen, but said to yellowish-green. Fruit 
lanceolate, 6-8 c.m. long, 2 c.m. diameter, deeply furrowed with about 16 ridges meeting in pairs at top and bottom. Seeds round, smooth, brown, 2 m.m. 
diameter, bedded in pith so apparently in separate cells. Arenga, Magenja da Costa. Sim 5900. 
Plate III. B. 1, Fruiting branch; 2, Section of fruit. 
The native name M-kau-kau is given in Magenja to a shrubby Oncoba 2-3 metres high, the flowers of which are eaten in times of scarcity, and which has also a 
medicinal use, but my specimens insufficient to admit of specific identification. 
17. RAWSONIA. Flowers hermaphrodite or occasionally polygamous ; flowers in short axillary racemes or crowded; sepals, petals and petaloid staminodia all concave, 
scarious, yellowish, bract-like, somewhat similar, and not indistinct whorls, about 15 in all; the outer ciliate, the inner longer. Stamens about 16, the inner 
hypogynous, the outer perigynous, opening edgeways. Ovary sessile with a sessile 4-5 lobed stigma ; ovules numerous on 4-5 parietal placentae. Fruit not seen. 
R. lucida, Harv. & Sond. Vern. names — 5, Nanga; 13, Umnqai masendi. Small tree. Leaves alternate, coriaceous, glabrous, shining 10-20 c.m. long, 3-4 c.m. wide, 
oblong-lanceolate, pointed with wavy margins, and sharply serrate, the prickle teeth pointing forward; petiole 15 c.m. long, stipules caducous. Racemes 2 c.m. 
long, about 6-flowered. Whole tree glabrous except the minutely downy sepals. M’Chopes district (extra-tropical); grows also in Natal and Pondoland. See 
“ Forest Flora of Cape Colony,” Plate CXLIII. 
Oncoba sulcata (Sp. nov.). Frutex magnus, partibus junioribus ferrugineo-pubescentibus ; foliis ovatis, oblongis aut oblongo-lanceolatis, 7-12 c.m. longis, 2-5 c.m. latis, acutis, tenuibus, irregulariter ' 
dentaus, 3-nervns, glabris aut glabrescentibus nisi nervis paginae inferioris ; petiolis 1-2 c.m. longis ; inflorescentiis apicalibus, cymosis, 1-3-floris; floribus baud visis ; fruclibus lanceolatis, 6-8 c.m. longis, 2 c.m. ’ 
iam., inter costas circa 16 apicem et basim versus binalim junctas profunde sulcatis ; seminibus rolundis, levibus, fuscis, 2 m.m. diam. Arenga, Magenja da Costa. Sim 5900. Tab. III. B. 
