27 



PLATE 296. 



STNADENIUM AEBORESCENS, Boiss. (Bth. & Hook, f. Gen. Plant. Vol. VIII., p. 261). 



Natural Order, EUPHORBIAOE.E. 



A glabrous succulent shrub four feet high, with spreading terete branches 

 branchlets nearly as thick as the little finger, bluish green speckled with white' 

 tips obtuse. Leaves towards the tips of the branches, 3 to 3| inches long, spread- 

 ing and drooping, subsessile, fleshy, cuneately obovate, apiculate, obscurely crenu- 

 late, very dark green and phining above with spreading nerves and reticulate 

 nervules, pale blue-green, and quite smooth beneath, with a strong midrib and no 

 visible nerves. Cymes in the axils of the uppermost leaves and about half their 

 length, di-trichotomously branched ; peduncle | to f inch long, as thick as a small 

 goosequill, dark green speckled with white like branches, glabrous; pedicels 

 inch long, puberulous ; bracts at the forks and base of the involucre, opposite, 

 quadrate, concave, puberulous, as long as the involucre, all pale green. Involucre 

 to ^ inch diameter, yellow, formed of 5, membranous hyaline quadrate scales 

 with lacerate tips, connate at the base, and seated in a fleshy hemispheric cup 

 which is crenulate on the margin within (this cup answers to the large glands on 

 the involucre of Euphorbia which are here confluent). Male flowers (each of a 

 single stipitate stamen) numerous, in 5 fascicles opposite the involucral scales, 

 mixed with linear, hairy, lacerate bracteoles. Female flower a stipitate trigonous 

 pistil (often imperfect) in the centre of the involucre, with a short style swollen in 

 the middle, and 3 diverging stigmas, each forked at the tip. 



Habitat : NATAL : Rocky slope, Inanda, under slight shade, 1,300 feet alt, Wood ; 

 edge of wood, Lower Umzimkulu, 500 feet alt, Wood. 



Drawn and the description compared with plants growing in Botanic Gardens, 

 Durban, but not cultivated, probably planted by a former Curator. 



The above description is copied verbatim from the Botanical Magazine, Plate 

 7184, published in 1892, and the figures 1, 2, >, 4, and 6 are also copied from the 

 plate, figs. 5 and 7 being added. The only differences we observe are, that in our 

 specimens the leaves are not all crenulate, the cymes are rather less than the 

 length of the leaves, and the style is not always swollen in the middle. 



We have ventured to figure this plant again as the Botanical Magazine in 

 which it is described by Sir J. Hooker is seldom, if at all seen by Natal colonists, 

 while the plant itself is one to be very carefully avoided. It is known to the 

 natives as Undhlebe or Umbulele, and is reputed to be very poisonous, fabulous 

 stories are told of it by the natives, such as that it will strike a man dead if he 

 approaches it too closely unless provided with the antidote, with which the mouth 

 is to be filled, and the mixture forcibly ejected in the direction of the plant, also 

 that underneath the plant the ground is white with the bones of animals that have 

 been killed by it, but though the writer has several times seen the plant in its 

 natural habitat, perhaps on account of his defective vision the bones were not 

 visible. Certain, however, it is that the plant must be handled very cautiously 

 when met with, since the writer when gathering specimens for the Herbarium aud 

 distribution, after taking the precaution of covering his face, keeping at arms 

 length from the plant, and carefully washing hands and face as soon as the 

 specimens were disposed of, has felt the effects on the eyelids, nostrils, and lips 

 for several hours afterwards. 



Fig. 1, Branch of cyme with two bracts at the fork, and an involucre with its 2 

 bracts ; 2, vertical section of involucre, showing the cup, the involucral scale, male 

 and female flowers; 3, scale of involucre; 4, involucre with the cup removed; 5, 

 ovary, style and stigma; 6, male flower; 7, linear bracteole; all enlarged. 



