Book Description

Excerpt from Catalogue of the African Plants: Collected by Dr. Friedrich Welwitsch in 1853-61 Combretacae, whether as climbers often with their grand inflorescence, or as moderate-sized trees, constitute one of the greatest ornaments of the tropical landscape, making a splendid show with their variously-coloured leaves and winged fruits; by the abundance of their flowers, especially in the case of the species which have red blossoms, they produce a wonderfully magnificent effect: they mostly bloom in winter. Combretum flammeum Welw., a climbing shrub, which is frequent about Sange in Golungo Alto, has its petals and sepals and even its bracts coloured bright red, ultimately turning dark blood-red, and thus presents the appearance of a burning bush. Few species give from dried specimens any adequate idea of the beauty of the plants in a growing state. Some species occur only as herbs or undershrubs, others as trees even to the height of 80 ft., others again either as small shrubs or mighty climbers; some have a very wide distribution, us for instance C. cortstrictum Laws., which occurs on both the western and eastern sides of the African continent, and which in Angola is diffused in different forms in the interior, and is represented in Pungo Andongo by a closely allied species. Six species of trees or erect shrubs adorn the forests about Pungo Andongo, and of these one with large glossy leaves and clusters of blood-red fruits is conspicuous, inhabiting the forests of the Cuanza valley from Sansamanda to Quisonda, a distance of at least 75 to 80 geographical miles; Combretum constrictum Laws., an officinal shrub, occurs very abundantly near candumba; tho scandent species with flaming-red flowers are rarer than in Golungo Alto and Cazengo; but C. racemosum P. Beauv. with its silky-glossy leaves and scarlet-red flowers produces a splendid contrast. Several species, which are found in masses in Golungo Alto, occur in Pungo Andongo singly, and so exercise but little effect as a feature in the physiognomy of the vegetation. Most species show a considerable variation between the leaves of their young shoots and those of tho older flower-bearing branches, both in shape and indumentum, so that it is often very difficult to classify forms of the same species which have sprung from the same stock but at different periods or have attained a greater age; frequently even tho densest tomontum on the radical shoots becomes obsolete on the flowering shrub. The pubescence, which is often silky or like felt, and which is whitish or greyish on the living plant, assumes on dried specimens a tawny or ferruginous colour, rendering tho descriptions taken from herbarium specimens mostly erroneous and occasioning wrong diagnostic characters. For instance, C. holoscriceum Sond. is described by its author as clothed with tawny hairs, while in nature it shines with a silvery-white pubescence on its leaves and branches, and tho wings of its fruit, described as yellowish, arc really of a blood-red colour. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."