65 



are creamy white, and small, but very abundant, and scented. It is said to be 

 sometimes without spines, but it usually has them on the lower part, at any rate, of 

 the stem, hence its specific name " armata." The habit of the plant makes it very 

 difficult to estimate the length to which it grows, though it must in many cases 

 be very great, as it twines through the bush and appears on the tops of the tallest 

 trees. The genus is a tropical and sub-tropical one, and includes between 60 and 

 70 species, some of which yield valuable timber, but the South African species are 

 of no special value. Both this plant and an allied species D. obovata are attacked 

 by an insect which produces very curious galls ; on the above described species the 

 galls are much smaller than those on D. obovata, borne singly, and not in clusters 

 as in that species ; these galls have sometimes been mistaken for the fruit of the 

 plant ; in both cases the galls are hollow, and contain a single larva. 



Fig 1 , Branch with leaves, flowers, young seed vessels, and galls, about natural 

 size; 2, Flower, side view ; 3, Flower, the parts separated, a vexillum ; b b wings ; 

 ocarina; 4, Staminal tube, opened out; 5, Anther; 6, Calyx and Ovary; 7, Calyx 

 opened out, all enlarged ; 8, Legume, reduced. 



PLATE 80. 



TRICHILIA EMETICA, Vahl. 

 Natural Order, MELIACE.E. 



A handsome tree 20 to 50 feet high, with spreading branches. Bark dark 

 coloured. Leaves mostly at ends of branches, scattered, petiolate, unequally 

 pinnate, rachis 5 to 8 inches long to last pair of pinnae, swollen at base, and 

 channelled on upper portion, pubescent. Leaflets in 2 to 5 pairs, opposite or sub- 

 opposite, petiolulate, entire, oblong, tapering to both ends, obtuse or emarginate 

 at apex, lowermost pair the smallest, gradually increasing in size upwards, ter- 

 minal one equalling the uppermost pair, glabrous, dark green and shining above, 

 lighter, dull green and pubescent on veins beneath, veins and veinlets conspicuous 

 above, prominent beneath ; 2 to 6 inches long, 1-2 inches wide ; petiolules 3 lines 

 long, swollen and channelled above, the terminal one swollen at base, compressed 

 upwards, 6 lines long. Inflorescence in axillary, few flowered panicles, which are 

 very much shorter than the leaves, and finely pubescent. Calyx gamosepalous, 5 

 cleft half way down, lobes rounded, 1 line long. Corolla of 5 oblong or strap 

 shaped, coriaceous, hypogynous petals 6 to 7 lines long, 2 lines wide, widely 

 spreading; in age recurved. Stamens 8-10, hypogynous, filaments united in a 

 tube, the strap shaped filaments being each 2 toothed at apex, the tube 20 ribbed, 

 the ribs pilose, light brown, interspaces white, subglabrous ; 3 lines long, 2 lines 

 wide, pilose within. Anthers on summit of tube, sessile between the teeth, and 

 projecting beyond them, 2 celled, introrse, acute. Style 1, cylindrical, finely 

 puberulous, as long as stamens. Stigma depressed-globose. Ovary superior, 2-4 

 celled, cells 2 ovuled. Capsule 2-4 celled, loculicidally 2-4 valved, valves septi- 

 ferous in the middle. Cells 1-2 seeded. Seeds black with a fleshy red arillus. 



Habitat: NATAL: Coast districts. "Wood No. 5612 (sterile) 5615 (fertile). 

 Drawn and described from specimens in flower on Berea, November, 1898. 



The genus Trichilia includes about 30 species, natives of Tropical America, 

 and South and Tropical Africa, the Flora Capensis enumerates 3 species as natives 

 of South Africa, and there is one other T. alata, N.E.B., Wood 1022 & 1043 which 

 is very different in appearance from any described in the Flora Capensis. The 



