Icacina
(a name given on account of the resemblance of the branches to a tree called the Icaco). ORD. Olacineoe. A genus comprising three or four species of shrubs, natives of Western tropical Africa. Flowers villous, in terminal panicles. Leaves simple, alternate, exstipulate, shortly petiolate, ovate, entire, reticulate-nerved. Branches ascending or twining. I. Mannii, the only species yet introduced, is a shrubby stove climber, thriving in rich sandy loam and leaf mould. Propagated by cuttings, made of the young shoots, and inserted in sandy loam, in bottom heat, under a hand glass. I. Mannii (Mann's). fl. 1/4in. long, in short, silky, axillary cymes; calyx five-lobed; petals yellow, linear-oblong; stamens exserted. October. l. alternate, 5in. to 7in. long, elliptic, abruptly narrowed into a long point, rounded at base quite entire, shortly petioled, membranous, glabrous, or with midrib beneath and petiole puberulous; nerves few. Stem slender, climbing. Root a large tuber, 6in. to 12in. in diameter, terete, glabrous. Gulf of Guinea, 1865. (B. M. 6260.)