Acokanthera. | APOCYNACEH (Stapf). 501 
According to Thunberg, the root is used by the Hottentots for poisoning 
arrows. The Dutch call it ‘* Gift-boom.” 
2. A. spectabilis (Hook. f. in Bot. Mag. t. 6359); a tall shrub 
or small tree up to 15 ft. high, glabrous (except sometimes the 
inflorescences) ; young branches compressed; leaves elliptie or 
oblong-lanceolate, aeute, rarely obtuse, generally mucronate, acute 
at the base, 23-5 in. long, 1-2 in. broad, very coriaceous, dark 
green, paler and sometimes purplish beneath; secondary nerves 
usually 7-10 on each side, sometimes with similar tertiary nerves 
between them, faint or like the reticulating veins slightly prominent 
on both sides ; petiole stout, 2—4 lin. long; corymbs or clusters short, 
dense, many-flowered, subsessile, glabrous or puberulous; bracts 
ovate, eaducous, ciliolate ; calyx more or less pubescent, green or 
whitish, 13 lin, long; sepals ovate-lanceolate, ciliolate; corolla 
white, tinged with pink, fragrant; tube 7-9 lin. long, pubescent or 
almost glabrous without, hairy within ; lobes ovate to oblong, acute, 
2-3 lin. long ; anthers 3 lin. long; stigma short, cylindric, obtusely 
apiculate ; berry ellipsoid, 1 lin. long or longer, purplish-black ; 
seeds 1-2, semi-ellipsoid, 5-9 lin. long. K. Schum. in Engl. & 
Prantl, Pflanzenfam. iv. ii. 126; Wood, Natal Pl. 60, t. 74; Stapf 
in Dyer, Fl. Trop. Afr. iv. i. 95. A. venenata, Schweinf. ex Lewin 
in Engl. Jahrb. xvii. Beibl. 41, 46, and Lewin, le. 47-51; L. 
Planchon, Prod. Apocyn. 255; Vogtherr in Kohler, Mediz. Pf. iii. 
(text to t. 64); not of G. Don. A. venenata, var. spectabilis, Sim, 
For. Fl. Cape Col. 270, t. cliv. fig. 2. A. sp., Benth. et Hook. f. 
Gen. Pl. ii. 696. Carissa oblongifolia, Hochst. in Flora, 1844, 827, 
and ex Walp. Rep. vi. 466. Toxicophlea spectabilis, Dyer ex Gard. 
Chron, 1872, 363; Flor. Mag. new ser. t. 20; Gard. Chron. xv. 
(1894), 209, Jig. 23; Rev. Hort. 1879, 270, with plate; 1888, 517 
with fig. T. Lhunbergti, Sonder in Linnea, xxiii. 79; Gartenflora, 
1878, t. 940; Rev. Hort. 1880, 870, with plate; Ill. Hort. xxxii. 
(1885) ¢, 553, not of Harvey. 
Coast Region: Bathurst Div. ; wooded sand-hills near the sea, Bowker ! 
Bathurst Div.; mouth of the Great Fish River, Burchell, 3760! East London 
Div.; coast at East London, Galpin, 1850! 
EasteRN Recion: Natal 3; near The Point, Krauss, 361! near Durban, 
Wood, 1017! Wilms, 2005! in woods along the coast, Wood in MacOwan, Herb. 
Austr.-Afr. 1501! and without precise locality, Cooper, 1247! 1262! 1263! 
Gerrard, 88! 
Sim (l.c.) considers this as ‘the eastern coast form” of A. venenata, into 
“which it merges gradually . . . in accordance with surroundings.” ; 
O. Kuntze indicates this species from Hereroland (Jahrb, Berl. Bot. Gart. iv. 
1886, 268). I suspect that this is due to a confusion with A, venenata. The 
plant contains a deadly poison. 
IV. RAUWOLFIA, Linn. 
Calyx small, eglandular within, more or less herbaceous ; sepals 5, 
almost free and imbricate or united into a flat 5-toothed cup. 
Corolla salver-shaped ; tube slightly widened below the mouth, 
very rarely just below the middle; mouth constricted, without 
appendages, usually villous; lobes 5, twisted and overlapping 
