Notes from the East African Herbarium: XIV

Abstract

Frutex erectus, foliis fasciculatis obovatis coriaceis brevissime petiolatis. Flores solitarii axillares pedicellati. Abissinia meridionale, Dare (n. 331). Genus Sect. Hildebrandtieae pertinens.' Although short, this description gives the salient characters and Chiovenda's indications of affinity strongly suggested that the plant is identical with the one collected by Mr. O. West [No. 5424] which I supposed might be a new genus allied to Hildebrandtia Vatke (Kew Bull. 14: 335 (1960)). The genus Sabaudiella is not further mentioned in any Flora, nor are specimens referred to that name present in any of the herbaria I have consulted. I therefore wrote to Dr. G. Moggi of Florence to ascertain if any type material was deposited there. He replied that the type was preserved at Turin and kindly arranged for it to be sent to Nairobi. It is a poor fruiting specimen but undoubtedly identical with West 5424 mentioned above. From these two specimens Mrs. M. E. Church has drawn the accompanying illustrationt which will allow the plant readily to be recognized in the future. An amended description is given below. The field label bears the additional information that the collector's name was C. Basile and that the date of collection was 18 Dec. 1928. A manuscript name meaning large calyx is also written on the label but Chiovenda must have changed the epithet when writing his paper.