Emplectanthus. | ASCLEPIADE (Brown). 773 
glabrous on both sides ; outer corona-lobes about 4 lin. long, sub- 
_ quadrate, deeply concave, emarginate or bifid, fleshy, dark purple- 
brown ; inner corona-lobes about } lin. long, oblong, obtuse, adnate 
at the basal half to the stamens and dorsally to the basal margins 
of the outer corona-lobes, free above, incurved-ascending and closely 
applied to the backs of the anthers, but not or very slightly pro- 
duced beyond them, purple-brown; young follicles linear-terete, 
hooked at the apex, glabrous, in the examples seen 2} in. long, 
? lin. thick. 
EasTerN Reaion: Natal; Tugela, Gerrard, 1803! 
XXIX. SPHHROCODON, Benth. 
Calyx 5-partite. Corolla with a campanulate tube and spreading 
lobes, or rotate; lobes overlapping and slightly twisted in bud. 
Corona of 5 small fleshy tubercles arising from the staminal column 
some distance above its base. Staminal column arising from the 
base of the corolla; anthers erect, obtuse, without appendages. 
Pollen-masses erect, solitary in each anther-cell, not very minute, 
united in pairs by very slender caudicles to the minute and rather 
thin pollen-carrier. Style shorter than the anthers, truncate, and 
shortly 5-rayed at the apex. Fruit unknown. 
Perennial herbs, with a woody or tuberous rootstock; stems erect, often 
flexuose, but not twining; leaves opposite; flowers in pedunculate sublateral 
umbel-like cymes. 
Distris, Species 2, both in Tropical Africa, of which only 1 extends into 
South Africa. 
1. 8. obtusifolium (Benth. in Hook. Ic. Pl. xii. 78, t. 1190) ; 
stems one to several to a root, erect, 1-3 ft. high, simple or slightly 
branching at the base only, softly and shortly tomentose ; leaves 
herbaceous ; petiole 1-3 lin. long; blade 14-3 in. long, }-1j in. 
broad, oblong to elliptic, subacute to very obtuse and apiculate, 
cuneate to rounded at the base, subglabrous or thinly puberulous 
above, softly and very shortly pubescent beneath ; cymes umbel- 
like, 6-13-flowered ; peduncles }-} in. long, pubescent or tomentose ; 
pedicels }-} in. long, pubescent or tomentose ; sepals 1-2 lin. long, 
linear-lanceolate, pubescent ; corolla when dried blackish-purple ; 
tube 2-24 lin. long and about 3 lin. in diam., broadly campanulate ; 
lobes spreading, 1$—2 lin. long and as much in breadth at the base, 
ovate, obtuse ; glabrous outside, loosely clothed within the tube and 
on the inner face of the lobes with very fine jointed (cobwebby *) hairs, 
not visible when wetted ; corona-tubercles arising about } lin. up 
the staminal column, radiating, compressed, obtuse. Hiern in Cat. 
Afr. Pl. Welw. i. 692; N.E. Br. in Dyer, Fl. Trop. Afr. iv. i. 412 ; 
Bot. Mag. t.7925. 8. obtusifolia, K. Schwm. in Engl. Pfl. Ost-Afr. C, 
