58 



green stripe. We notice further that while in 0. virens the bulbils are few and 

 produced as above stated, in O. Eckloni, they are very numerous, thickly clustered, 

 different in shape, and scarcely stoloniferous. 



; Fig. 1, Plant about natural size; 2, Flower, two lobes of perianth removed ; 

 3, Ovary, style, and stigma ; 4, Stamen with narrow filament ; 5, Stamen with 

 broad filament ; 6, Cross section of ovary ; all enlarged. 



PLATE 71. 



JATBOPHA HIRSUTA, Hochst. 

 Natural Order EUPHOBBIACE.E. 



Stems, several from a woody root, erect, terete or sub-terete, glabrous, 

 shining, red-brown, leafy, 3 to 8 inches or more high, sometimes branching. 

 Leaves alternate, sub-sessile, stipulate, ovate, oval-oblong or sub-rotund, acute or 

 mucronate, glabrous, or sometimes pilose, margin hyaline, and with a few scattered 

 hyaline glandular teeth, midrib prominent, and tinted red beneath, veinlets and 

 venules plainly marked ; 1^ to 5 inches long, 1 to 3 inches wide. Stipules very 

 small, bristly and glandular at apex ; sometimes branched. Inflorescence in ter- 

 minal corymbs, monoecious. Male flowers pedicelled, pedicels 2 lines long. Calyx, 

 5 parted nearly to base, 3 to 4 lines long, sepals broadly lanceolate, ciliate with 

 10 to 16 stalked glands on upper third, occasionally with a few pilose hairs on 

 surface, yellow, 3 to 4 lines long. Bracts linear or subulate, glandular like calyx 

 lobes. Corolla of 5, obovate, or cblanceolate petals which are connate at base, and 

 twice as long as calyx, pilose with a few white hairs in lower portion inside, yellow, 

 imbricate. Disk of 5, small, compressed glands, alternate with petals. Stamens 7 

 to 10, central, filaments united at base into a column, the 3 central ones longest. 

 Anthers 2 celled. Female flowers less numerous than the male, and usually in a 

 fork of the lower branches of the corymb. Calyx similar to that of the male 

 flowers, but usually with more numerous glands, and hairs. Corolla and disk 

 similar to those of the male flowers. Ovary ovate, styles 3, stigmas flattened, a 

 little concave on the upper side. Capsule ovate, 1 inch long, f- inch diameter, 

 deeply 3 lobed, the lobes again ribbed, 3 celled, cells 1 seeded, seeds large, carun- 

 culate. 



Habitat : NATAL : Open graund from near the sea level to at least 2,000 

 feet alt. Inanda, Wood No. 211. 



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



The genus Ja,tropha includes about 68 species, all natives of tropical, and sub- 

 tropical countries, and is one of the genera of Euphorbiaceae whose flowers are 

 furnished with conspicuous petals. In South Africa we have 4 species of the 

 genus, two of which are found in Natal, but we cannot learn that they are applied 

 to any useful purpose. One or more of the foreign species furnish an oil which 

 is obtained by crushing the seeds. J. curcas, or Curcas purgans which is a 

 synonym, is occasionally found in cultivation in Natal, and J. multifida is fre- 

 quently seen in gardens, the seeds of both are deleterious, if not absolutely 

 poisonous. The native name of the plant above described is i-Godalide, or 

 u-Godile. 



Fig. 1 , Stem with leaves, flowers and fruit about natural size ; 2, Section of 

 male flower ; 3, Section of female flower ; 4, Bract ; 5, Stamen, back and front 



