Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 34 (1896).djvu/74

 64 NEW AI*RICAN PLANTS. leaflets. Leaflets membranous, shortly petiolulate, glabrous on both surfaces, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate; lateral leaflets slightly uueciual-sided, base rounded, apex apiculate, margin entire, some- what sinuate, main vein slightly prominent below, lateral veins almost at right angles to main vem, impressed below; terminal leaflet nearly 2 in. long, | in. broad at broadest part, which is about one-third from the base. Flowers paniculately arranged. Peduncle and pedicels pubescent. Bracts strap-shaped, pubescent, those on the peduncle about 1^ lines long ; bracteoles shorter, somewhat spathulate. Sepals membranous, imbricate, elliptical or ovate-oblong, about ^ in. long. Petals free, 4-5 lines long, narrow, pubescent, margin somewhat irregular, in the dried state of a yellow colour. Stamens 5, about as long as the petals ; filaments glabrous. Staminodia opposite to the sepals, filiform, much shorter than the fertile stamens, about 1^ lines long. Ovary hirsute, shortly stalked ; style smooth, twice as long as the ovary. Ovules anatropous. Hab. On the north-eastern corner of Lake Eudolf, in flat open country, flowering in August, Dr. Donaldson Smith, No. 398. A very curious and interesting plant. It suggests technically FittosporecB, but the anther-stamens are opposite the petals, and the leaves pinnately compound ; also there is affinity with Pasdjiorece, If the accompanying figure be compared with that of Deidamia alata figured by Du Petit Thouars {Hist. Veg. Isles Austr. A/r. t. 20), certain points of resemblance will be at once noted. The shortly stipitate ovary with parietal placentation and hypogynous stamens, and the imparipinnate leaves. The latter differs, however, in its 3-4-parted style and in the stamens being adnate to the gynophore, and in the reduced corona. In the Angolan genus Atheranthera we have ten stamens, five of which are sterile, and no corona ; but the flowers are unisexual (see Trans. Linn. Sue. xxvii. 640), and the leaves simple. Atheranthera Welwitschii Masters, l. c. is identical with Gerrardanthus Trhneni Cogn. I have pleasure in dedicating this interesting novelty to the discoverer, i3r. Donaldson Smith ; also in thanking Prof. D. Oliver for much assistance in connection with it. Mr. E. M. Holmes has suggested an affinity with Moringa, with which it has certainly some resemblance. It agrees in the 6 stamens alternating with 5 staminodia, and in the stipitate ovary with parietal placentation ; but Donaldsonia differs from Moringa by the flowers being regular and having a decided disk, by the calyx not forming a cup at the base, and by the leaves being only simply, not compoundly, imparipinnate. Chionothrix latifolia Kendle, sp. n. Fruticosus ramis juni- oribus velut foliis pedicellisque stellato-pubescentibus ; foliis ovatis interdum paene ovalibus, obtusis integris, breviter petiolatis ; in- florescentia 0. somalensis Hk. fil. ; perianthii segmentis subae^ualibus oblongo-ligulatis, margine membranaceis apice subcucullatis, dorso dense et longe barbato-villosis ; staminibus generis ; ovario sub- globoso. • Hab. Shebeli, Dr. Donaldson Smith, Aug. 23rd, 1894. The leaves, which reach 1^ in. m length and 1 in. in breadth,