496 EuniORBiACE.E (Prain). [Phtkenetia 



XXXV. PLUKENETIA, Linn. 



Flowers monoecious ; petals ; disc 0. 3Iale : Calyx 4-5-lobed ; 

 lobes valvate. Stamens 8-30; filaments very short, free, inserted 

 on a fleshy raised receptacle ; antliers short, erect, their cells dis- 

 tinct, opening longitudinally. Rudimentary ovary usually 0. 

 Female : Cahjx 4-5-lobed ; lobes imbricate. Oran^ normally 4-celled ; 

 ovules solitary in each cell ; styles connate in a hollow cylindric or 

 subglobose fleshy column crowned by the short or very short free 

 stigmatic h)bes. Capsule in our species depressed 4-dyiiiouSj breaking" 

 up into 2-valved cocci ; cocci dorsally winged. Seed globose or 

 compressed; testa crustaceous, sometimes winged; albumen fleshy; 

 cotyledons broad j flat. 



Slender, twining, rarely erect or procumbent, herbs or undershrubs, rarely 

 shrubs ; leaves alternate, petioled, entire or toothed, 3-5-nerved from the base ; 

 flowers in axillarj" or leaf-opposed racemes, pedicelled, male usually minute, more 

 or less glonierulate above, female solitary towards the base of the raceme, always 

 few, sometimes casually absent. 



DiSTRiB. Species about 12, in most hot countries ; in tropical Africa four, of 

 which the two here described extend to South Africa, 



Stems erect 



»»t ««* ••* «»« 



.,. (1) africana 



Stems twining (2) hastata. 



1. P. africana (Soud. in Linnsea, xxiii. 110) ; a branching under- 

 shrub ; stems erect, H ft. high, thinly pubescent ; leaves short- 

 petioled, membranous, oblong-triangnlar, acute, base subcordate or 

 somewhat 3-lobed and cuneate between the small coarsely toothed 

 lateral lobes, margin except on the basal lobes minutely and 



distantly toothed or subentire^ 1-1^ in. long, J- in. wide at the base, 

 more or less pubescent especially on the nerves when young, at 

 length nearly glabrous, nerves especially beneath purplish ; petiole 

 glabrous, i-^ in. long; stipules linear, small ; racemes leaf -opposed, 

 about 1 in. long, shortly peduncled, with 20-30 male flowers m 

 8-12 glomcrules above and a solitary basal female flower; bracts 

 lanceolate, small ; male calyx 4-lobed ; stamens about 8 ; filaments 

 short ; female calyx 4-lobed ; ovary pilose ; stigma 44obed ; capsule 

 4-dymous, transversely ^ in., diagonally | in. across ; cocci distinctly 

 winged on the back; seeds complanate, under |- in. across, narrowly 

 marginally winged. MiilL Arg. in DC. Prodr. xv. ii. 773 ; Prain in 

 Dyer, Fl. Troj). Afr. vi. i. 951. Sajorium africanum, Ba'JL Adan- 



sonia, iii. IGO. Pseudoiragia Schinzii, Pax in Bull, Heth, Boiss, 

 2»w ^^^^ yjjj (535^ 



Kalahari Regtox : Bechuanaland ; Messeringa Vlei, Seiner ! Transvaal ; 

 Macaliriberg Range, Burle ! Zajher, 1522! 



Also in German South-West Africa. 



