38  The  Apocynacece  in  Materia  Medica.  {Alg^S!&*SS^ 
covered  with  lenticels  and  relatively  small  leaves.  The  follicle  seems 
quite  characteristic,  very  shrunken  and  obtuse,  rounded  about  the 
summit,  1 8-20  centimetres  in  length.  The  naked  part  of  the  awn 
or  shaft  is  nearly  31^  centimetres,  Franchet  says  4-5  centimetres. 
The  plumed  part  always  quite  small,  18-20  millimetres.  The  hairs  of 
the  awn  are  quite  long,  nearly  3  centimetres,  white,  slightly  yellow- 
ish, fine,  brilliant  and  silky. 
The  seed  is  lanceolate,  the  form  occasionally  somewhat  asym- 
metric, 10-15  millimetres  in  length,  3-3^  millimetres  in  breadth, 
and  \y2  millimetres  in  thickness.  The  posterior  extremity  is 
rounded,  the  anterior  lengthily  attenuated  into  a  very  fragile  shaft. 
The  surface  chocolate  brown,  covered  with  short,  crowded  brown 
hairs  easily  seen  with  a  lens  or  even  with  the  naked  eye.  The  ven- 
tral line  is  rarely  very  clear. 
This  species  is  important  because  it  inhabits  the  same  regions  as 
the  5.  hispidus  and  5.  minor  and  the  seeds  closely  resemble  those, 
so  that  the  substitution  or  admixture  becomes  very  certain.  The 
bitterness  of  this  seed  is  relatively  weak. 
The  first  layer  of  the  seminal  tegument  shows  cells  with  the 
lateral  thickenings  quite  small,  convex,  but  not  at  all  hemispherical. 
The  second  tegument  is  composed  of  cells  extremely  crowded  and 
compressed,  is  a  deep  brown  and  is  very  little  thickened.  On  a 
level  with  the  raphe  the  second  tegument  divides  into  two,  the 
external  zone  being  very  dark,  the  internal  much  more  clear; 
between  these  is  placed  the  fascicles. 
With  sulphuric  acid  the  section  is  colored  at  once  a  yellow  with 
a  little  greenish  (but  it  is  the  droplets  of  oil  which  becomes  colored), 
then  to  a  rose  (tissue  of  the  cotyledons).  But  the  color  is  never  a 
decided  green.  This  character,  in  conjunction  with  the  abundance 
of  the  macies  of  calcium  oxalate  in  the  embryo  and  with  the  taste 
but  slightly  bitter,  seems  to  indicate  that  the  seed  is  quite  poor  in 
active  principle. 
THE  WOOLLY  STROPHANTHUS  OF  ZAMBESI. 
Stropkanthus  asper  Oliv. — Although  the  botanical  information  is 
reduced  to  a  minimum,  it  is  evident  from  a  single  inspection  of  the 
seed  that  one  is  dealing  with  a  distinct  species.  But,  after  more  than 
six  years,  the  primitive  name  given  by  Blondel,  "  Strophanthus 
lanieux  du  Zambcze,"  remains  a  resume  of  our  geographic  and 
botanic  knowledge  upon  this  subject. 
