OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 275
which the individual belonged was expressed. Thus, the generic name corresponds with the nonien (Cornelius), the name of the section with the cognomen (Scipio), and that of the species with the prscnomen (Pubhus).
Without attempting at present to obviate the objections to which the proposed innovation is no doubt liable, I shall proceed to apply it to Cleome pentaphylla. Accord- im ing to my view, the genus Cleome would include Gynan- dropsis, a name which, as that of a section, may be con- tinued to those species of j\I. De Candolle's genus belong- ing to equinoctial America, and having the common aesti- vation of the family : while Gfjmnofjoniay derived from its remarkable aestivation, may be employed for the section that includes C. pentaphylla, of which the name might be G;iven in the following; manner :
Cleome (Gymnogonia) pentaphylla. This plant, the earliest known species of Cleome, and that on which the genus was chiefly constituted, was found in Bornou. The species is regarded by M. De Candolle as a native of the West India Islands, and he doubts whether it may not also belong to Egypt and India. On the other hand, I consider it a native of Africa and India, and am not satisfied with the evidence of its being also indigenous to the American Islands, where, though now very common, it has pro- bably been introduced by the negroes, who use it both as a potherb and in medicine. It is not unlikely that M. De Candolle, in forming his opinion of the original country of this plant, has been in part determined by finding several species of his Gynandropsis decidedly and exclusively natives of the new conthient. But if I am correct in sepa- rating these species from the section to which Cleome (Gymnogonia) pentaphylla belongs, this argument, which I have formerly applied to analogous cascs,-^ would be clearly iu favour of the opinion I have here advanced ; those species of the section with which I am acquainted being un- doubtedly natives of Africa or of India.
Cleome (Siliquaria) Akabica [Linn. sp. pL cd. '2,jj,
^ Tmke/s Co?i^o,2^. 4:6d. {Ante, p.Vo^j.)
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