Notes

Partly described from living plants cultivated at Kew, which were sent from Uganda by Mr. E. Brown. E. heterochroma is placed by Pax in a group supposed to be characterised by the presence of 4 spines to each spine-shield, whilst E. Stuhlmannii is placed in another group having only 2. But the 4 spines in this, as in all other cases, are composed of the usual pair of spines developed below each leaf and a pair of small prickles or rarely spines (really stipules) placed one on each side of the leaf-scar. These prickles are sometimes well developed, sometimes quite absent on the same branch, and I find them to be, in most cases, quite useless for distinctive purposes. E. heterochroma is a case in point, for on some parts of the specimens composing the type gathering the prickles are well developed, and on the other parts (even of the same branch) they are quite absent. They are absent from Fischer, 182, and from the type specimen of E. Stuhlmannii, in which the spines are reduced to mere points, but that is certainly specifically identical with E. heterochroma. The species is very distinct from all those most nearly allied to it and easily recognised by its long-exserted small capsule. Goetze, 463 and 465, from Uhehe, German East Africa, are also quoted by Pax in Engl. Jahrb. xxviii. 421, as belonging to E. Stuhlmannii. I have not seen the specimens, but as they are stated to belong to a tree 6–36 ft. high the identification seems doubtful. Var. mitis I believe to be merely a more or less starved condition of the plant.