Volume 1

Catalogue of the African plants collected by Dr. Friedrich Welwitsch in 1853-61.

  • British Museum (Natural History) Department of Botany
Date:
1896-1901
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Catalogue of the African plants collected by Dr. Friedrich Welwitsch in 1853-61. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    173/392 page 141
    Ximervia] xxxvi. olacine.e. paler nearly glaucous beneath, not punctate; petals greenish-yellow - filaments whitish-hyaline, flattened, a little shorter than the petals, spirally twisted at the apex ; anthers yellow, basifixed : ovary nut- shaped, sessile, scrobiculate on the thicker portion, surmounted by a smooth conical process ; stigma obsoletely 4-angled; stigma small, capitate ; drupe the size of a pigeon’s egg, yellow both outside and inside, juicy, with smell of cyanic acid ; seed large, obovoid, very oily. No animal touches the fruit, and the crushed rind is frequently applied by the negroes to the sores of domestic animals to keep off the flies. Native name “ Muhinge” or “ Mohinge.” In primitive woods through- out nearly the whole district but usually sporadic, fl. Nov. 1855 ; by the river Delamboa near Sange in ripe fr. Dec. 1855 and Feb. and March 1856. No. 1122. Coll. Carp. 322, 323, 324. Unripe fruit green. At the margins of the primitive woods of Sobato de Mussengue but rare, May 1855. No. 1123. Mossamedes.—A small tree or a robust hard glaucescent arborescent shrub, spinous, in some places with deciduous in others with persistent leaves ; fruit egg-shaped, 1^ in. long, 1 in. thick, of an orange colour ; frequent in thickets almost throughout the district from Mossamedes to Bumbo, by the banks of the river Maiombo in sandy places, in fr. and other specimens in fl. Oct. 1859. Native name “ Umpeque.” No. 1130. Coll. Carp. 321. The seeds of the fruits contain a very savoury kernel, from which the natives of Mossamedes extract an oil which they employ at the time of their feasts and also for anointing their bodies and for daubing their hair. Being very abundant and easily propagated, the species is well worthy of the attention of those who study oil-producing plants (Welwitsch, Synopse, p. 34, n. 87). The seeds also can be used in the making of a kind of marasquino. Schweinfurth, Heart of Africa, vol. i., p. 192, states that the blossoms emit a soft fragrance as of orange flowers, and that the shrub bears a round yellow fruit about the size of a cherry which is nearly as sour as anything in nature. The flavour is like a citron, and the soft nut-like kernel is eaten with the juicy pulp. Var. /?. microphylla (Welwitsch), Oliv., l.c., i. p. 347. . A rigid shrub, 2 to 4 ft. high, very glaucous in all parts, virgately branched, not uncommonly adorned with species of Loranthus; leaves rather fleshy • flowers whitish-rose. Bumbo.—Frequent in bushy places at the skirts of the woods about the base of Serra da Xella, fl. Oct. 1859. No. 1127. 3. OLAX L.; Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. PI. i. p. 347. 1. 0. viridis Oliv. Fl. Trop. Afr. i. p. 349. Golungo Alto.—A low shrub, 2 to 4 ft. high ; branches thin, tor- Er sulcate-angular ; leaves evergreen, thinly fleshy-coriaceous, -I® ’ Powcrs rather obtuse i «dyx cupuliform, obtusely denti- ne’ r^l a+ truncat1e “argin, green, inferior, not accrescent; corolla usuallV onwa ;rP!^ls 6. cobermg UP to the middle; stamens 8, but below^b^+L3 ffrtl!e’,the latter alternate with the petals, inserted si d.t',0' the corolla included ; fertile anthers’ introrse, opposite to tbPDg+Tglt^!nally ’ laments flattened ; sterile stamens 5, tSarent wLP^ cor° la aPPears as if made of milk-white upper and thinn’/0 the„ yellow anthers which are placed in the the corolla falls off ^ +ube f‘°e throu?h the corolla-wall; it like the calyptra of a moss, circumscissile at the
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