104 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
five deeply concave fleshy petals, and two ovaries, with a ses- 
sile, reflexed, obsoletely 3-lobed stigma, both glabrous, and 
seated on a raised hairy gynsecium. 
4. Hypserpa funifera,no\i.] — alte scandens; ramis funiformibus, 
longissimis, aphyllis, undique floribundis, ruguloso-tubercu- 
latis ; ramulis opace brunneis, striatis, glabris ; foliis oblongis, 
imo rotundatis, gradatim acutis, apice acuminate canalicu- 
latim recurve, imo vix trinerviis, pinnato-nervosis, marginibus 
subundulatis, utrinque glaberrimis, supra pallide viridibus, 
reticulatis, subtus pallidioribus, nervis prominulis flavescenti- 
bus ; petiole tenui, substriato ; racemis ^ in ramis pristinis 
ad nodes annotinos plurimis et fasciculatis, vel in ramulis soli- 
tariis et supra-axillaribus, petiole longioribus, pedunculo tri- 
floro; floribus viridibus, sessilibus; sepalis ^9, ovalibus, 
quorum 3 iuterioribus duplo majoribus, marginibus membra- 
naceis, ciliato-erosis ; petalis 5-6, sagittato-ovatis, longe un- 
guiculatis, marginibus inflexis ; staminibus longissimis, 6-7, 
imo coalitis, cum altero centrali breviore informi. — In Africa 
centrali ; v. s. in herb. Hook., Mangoman, Manganja Hills 
(C. J. Mellor). 
This species was found, in the locality above quoted, by the 
botanists who accompanied Dr. Livingstone to the Lake Nyassa, 
where it bears the name of “ Kandama roube.” It is said to be 
“ a climber with thick stems, twisting round others like a rope, 
which are without leaves, 30-40 feet high, everywhere thickly 
loaded with flowers of a green colour.” The leafless floriferous 
branch is 4 lines in diam. ; the straight leaf- bearing branchlets 
are 1 line thick ; the leaves are 4 inches long, 2^ inches broad, 
on a petiole |-1 inch long; the axillary racemes are 1-2 inches 
long, the pedicels 2 lines long, divaricated, glabrous ; the flowers 
are minute ; the fasciculated racemes of the older branches are 
tomentose, 2^ inches long, their alternate branches 2 lines long, 
bearing on their apices three sessile flowers, each having at its 
base a bract ; it has three bracteiform, three somewhat larger 
ovate, and three inner opake obovate sepals, which are two or 
three times as large, with erosed margins, the margins of all being 
ciliated ; they have five or six halbert-shaped petals, half or one- 
third the length of the inner sepals, their apex sometimes bi- 
dentate, with indexed margins and a very slender claw ; six or 
seven stamens with slender filaments longer than the inner 
sepals, and a central club-shaped mass terminated by two glan- 
dular bodies, looking like two confluent abortive stamens. 
5 Hypserpa heteromera, nob.; — ramulis scandentibus, teretibus, 
striatis, puberulis ; foliis lanceolato-oblongis, imo subobtusis. 
