56 



5-6 lines long, outer ones 2 lines wide, inner 3-4^ lines wide. Stamens 3, ex- 

 serted, inserted on perianth tube ; filaments filiform, purple, anthers linear-oblong, 

 2 celled, sub-sagittate, attached at sinus, style equalling stamens, stigma in- 

 distinctly 3 lobed. Ovary inferior, oblong, triangular with acute angles, 3 celled, 

 many ovuled, ovules superposed ; capsule dry, distinctly pedicelled. 



Habitat: NATAL: Inanda, "Wood No. 192; all over the Colony, usually, but 

 not always in moist or shady places. 



Drawn and described from specimens gathered near Durban, September, 1898. 



The genus Aristea is represented in South Africa according to the Flora 

 Capensis by 21 species, there are 4 in Tropical Africa, and several in Madagascar. 

 All have bright blue flowers, and two or three of the species are in cultivation in 

 England. 



Fig. 1, Plant about natural size; 2, Flower; 3, Section of flower showing two 

 stamens, style stigma and upper portion of ovary; 4, Cross section of ovary; 

 5, Section of flowering stem ; all enlarged. 



PLATE 69. 



RHUS LONGIFOLIA, Sender. 

 Natural Order, ANACARUIACE^:. 



A spreading tree, 30 to 40 feet in height, with trunk 2 to 3 feet in diameter. 

 Leaves scattered, chiefly at ends of the branches, petiolate, exstipulate, simple,. 

 entire, coriaceous, glabrous, linear-oblong, obtuse at base, apex obtuse or emar- 

 ginate, strongly recurved ; margin thickened, hyaline, undulate; midvein prominent 

 beneath, veinlets conspicuous ; dark green and shining above, lighter and dull 

 beneath, 3-6 inches long, | 1-g- inches wide; petiole | 1 inches long, channelled 

 above, springing from an annular protuberance, which is persistent on the 

 twigs and branchlets. Inflorescence in large terminal, much branched, many 

 flowered panicles. Calyx gamosepalous, externally canescent, 5 cleft, teeth obtuse. 

 Corolla 5 parted nearly to base, lobes oblong, obtuse, more than twice as long as 

 calyx, light yellow-green, sometimes with a rosy tint, externally a little canescent. 

 Disk annular, yellow. Stamens in male flowers 5, shorter than corolla, and 

 inserted with it outside the disk, anthers 2 -celled, dorsifixed. Style and ovary 

 abortive. Female flowers, calyx and corolla similar to the male. Stamens 5,. 

 abortive. Styles 3, thick, sub-connate at base, recurved at apex. Stigmas obtuse 

 and dark coloured. Ovary seated on the disk, 1 celled, 1 seeded. Drupe oblique, 

 or reniform, compressed, glabrous, purple, the seed pendent from the wall of the 

 cell near its apex, the seed cord being adherent to the cell wall for more than half 

 its length. 



Habitat: NATAL : In forests all over the Colony. 



Drawn and described from specimens gathered near Durban, September, 1898. 



Mr. Fourcade in his Report on Natal Forests, p. 104, says of this tree, " A 

 large tree 2-3 feet in diameter, 40-50 feet high. Bark reddish grey, thin, even, 

 or cracked. Wood moderately heavy and hard, moderately strong and elastic, com- 

 pact, satiny, medullary rays moderately fine, close; pores small, regularly dis- 

 tributed ; colour purplish or grey tinged with red, the heartwood dark ; used for 

 beams, planks, rafters, &c. ; not very durable in water, or in contact with the 

 ground. Milky juice from the bark used by the natives as a depilatory. 



