246 
FLORA OF ADEN. 
3. Pentatropis R. Br. 
Slender twiners with opposite petiolate leaves, and sublateral or sub- 
axillarv umbels of small flowers. 
Calyx 5-partite. Corolla 5-lobed nearly to the base. Lobes 
suberect, with spreading tips, overlapping to the left and more or less 
twisted to the right in bud. Corona simple, arising from the staminal 
column, of 5 laterally compressed lobes, adnate for half to two-thirds of 
their length to the backs of the anthers. Staminal column arising from 
the base of the corolla. Anthers with membranous appendages inflexed 
over the truncate apex of the style. Pollen-masses pendulous, solitary in 
each cell of the anthers, affixed in pairs by short slender caudicles to the 
pollen-carriers. 
Follicles lanceolate, narrowed into a beak, smooth. Seeds crowned 
by a tuft of hairs. 
Species about 6. 
Distribution .- — Through Africa, Arabia, Baluchistan, the drier parts 
of India into China and the Malay Archipelago. 
1, Pentatropis cynanclioides R. Br. in Salt Vov. Abyss. Append. 
LXIV 5 This. -Dyer FI. trop. Afr. IV, 380, Cooke FI. Bomb. Pres. II, 
154. 
Pentatropis spiralis Dene, in Ann. Sc. Nat. 2 ser. IX, 327, t. 11, 
fig. E et in DC. Prodr. VIII, 536 ; Engl. & Prantl Pflanzenf. IV, 2, 
251, fig. 73, P — Q, and 258 ; Penzig in Atti Congr. Bot. Internaz. 
(1892) 349. 
Pentatropis spiralis Dene., var. longepetiolata Engl. Hochgebirgsfl. 
Trop. Afr. 343. 
Tvlophora cirrosa Aschers. in Schweinf. Beitr. FI. Aethiop. 132. 
Description : — Stems slender, twining, glabrous, except in the axils of 
the leaves and at the base of the young shoots, which are more or less 
pubescent. Leaves spreading; petiole 1 — 4 lines long; blade \ 
inches long, j — 1 inch broad, oblong, ovate or elliptic-ovate, acute or 
obtuse, mucronate, more or less fleshy, glabrous. 
Umbels subaxillary, 3 — 6-flowered ; peduncles slender, I — 3 lines 
long, or sometimes almost absent ; pedicels 3-5 lines long, filiform, 
sparsely puberulous. Sepals ^ — f lines long, ovate, acuminate, sparsely 
puberulous, or subglabrous. Corolla pentagonal and acuminate in bud, 
5-lobed nearly to the base, lobes 4—5 lines long, narrowly linear from 
a triangular base, twisted in bud, glabrous outside, minutely puberulous 
within. Corona-lobes arising J line above the base of the staminal 
column and nearly or quite reaching to its apex, varying in different 
