17 



PLATE 215. 



VANGUERIA LATLFOLIA, Sond. (in Fl. Cap. Vol. 3, p. 15). 

 Natural Order, RUBIACE.E. 



An erect undershrub with green flowers. Stems erect from a woody root, 

 sparingly branched, terete or subcompressed at nodes, bark brown, rough with 

 small prominences, finely hirsute, older subglabrous ; 1-2 feet high. Leaves oppo- 

 site, petiolate, stipulate, broadly ovate or oblong, obtuse at apex, rounded at base, 

 entire, glabrous, reaching to 3^ inches long, by 3^ wide, dark green above, paler 

 beneath, veins conspicuous on both surfaces ; petiole 12 lines long. Stipules 

 cuspidate from a broad rounded base, a little longer than the petiole. Peduncles 

 axillary, 3-4 flowered, sometimes with two peduncles in the same axil, pedicels 

 very short. Bracts linear, minute Calyx gamosepalous, glabrous, tube globose, 

 1-1^ line long, limb 5-parted, lobes linear, 2g-3J lines long; spreading. Corolla 

 gamopetalous, tube barrel-shaped, 2 lines long, lobes 5, at length reflexed, ovate- 

 acuminate, cucullate at apex, a little longer than tube, glabrous externally, inter- 

 nally with a circle of pilose white hairs in throat. Stamens 5, at throat of corolla 

 alternate with its lobes, filaments very short, anthers 2-celled, oblong, acute. 

 Style 1 ; stigma cylindrical, thick, minutely lobed at apex, deeply intruse at base. 

 Ovary inferior, 5-celled, 12-3 of the cells frequently abortive. Fruit a drupe 

 crowned by remains of the calyx lobes, globose, 1-2 inches diameter, 1-3 seeded 

 by abortion. Seeds compressed, bony, 5-6 lines long, by 4-5 lines wide. 



Habitat: NATAL: Coast and midlands. Gueinzius 115; Williamson; Wood 

 395; Government Herbarium 761. 



Drawn and described from specimens gathered near Durban, February, 1900. 



The genus Vangueria includes some oO species, natives of tropical countries, 

 in Natal we have 7 or 8 species, one of Avhich, V ' . lasiantha, was figured in Vol. 1, 

 plate 46. In tropical Africa there are about 1 2 species only one of which is also 

 found in Natal. The fruit of the above described species is eaten by natives and * 

 children, and is known by the natives as ukaba-ka-umtwaan. 



Fig. 1, a flower; 2, corolla opened out; 3, stamen; 4, calyx with two lobes 

 removed, showing pistil ; 5, seed, side and front view ; all enlarged. 



