a 



PLATE 321. 



PLEOTEONIA SPINOSA, Klotzsch. (Fl. Cap., Vol. III., p. 18). 

 Natural Order, RUBIAOEAE. 



A shrub, or small tree, reaching to 20 feet in height, and armed with sharp 

 spines, which are decussate on the stem and branches, and f to 1 inch long. 

 Branches spreading, greyish-white, glabrous, terete, younger ones pubescent. 

 Leaves opposite, petiolate, stipulate, fascicled on short arrested branchlets, or soli- 

 tary, oval, ovate or oblong, obtuse at both ends, or tapering slightly to base, margins 

 entire ; minutely pubescent on both surfaces, and with minute pits surrounded by 

 short hairs in angles of veins beneath; 1 to 2 inches long, i to 1J inch wide; 

 petioles 1 to 3 lines long, pubescent. Stipules subulate from a broad base, hirsute, 

 deciduous. Flowers clustered in the axils, green, the clusters from 2, to 10 or 12 

 flowered, shorter than the leaves ; peduncles very short, branched, pedicels 1 to 2 

 lines long. Calyx gamosepalous, very shortly 5-toothed, tube hemispherical, 

 glabrous. Corolla gamosepalous, 5-lobed, tube very short, sub-cylindrical, lobes 

 oblong, patent, reflexed or revolute, with a few jointed bairs in throat. Stamens 5, 

 alternate with corolla lobes, inserted in throat of corolla, filaments very short ; 

 anthers oblong, 2-celled. Ovary inferior, 2-celled, cells 1-ovuled ; style short, 

 stigma sub-capitate, 2 or 3 lobed. Fruit a 2-celled berry, crowned with the limb 

 of the calyx, compressed, one cell often abortive. 



Habitat : NATAL: Berea, 150 feet alt., October, Wood, No. 1726; Berea, July 

 Wood. 



Drawn and described from specimens gathered on Berea, July, 1903. 



The genus Plectronia, according to the " Index Kewensis," includes 36 species, 

 of which 6 are South African, the remainder widely dispersed in the Eastern 

 Hemisphere, and to these one, at least (P. locuples, K. Schum), and probably also 

 others, have been added since the publication of that work. 



Tn the generic description of Plectronia in the " Fl. Capensis," the stigmas are 

 said to be " subcapitate, of 2 approximate lamellae." In our specimens the lobes, 

 can scarcely be called lamellae, and are often sub-globose, and the stigmas are 

 usually 3-lobed, and only occasionally 2-lobed. In a note added by Professor 

 Harvey, he says : " Too nearly allied to Canthium," and 1 understand that these 

 raera are now united under Plectronia. 



The native name of the plant is " um-Pembetu," but I cannot learn that they 

 have any special use for the plant. Mr. Fourcade, in his ' Report on Natal 

 Forests," says of it: " Wood fine grained, heavy, yellowish " (Pappe). 



Fig. 1, flower; 2. corolla opened; 3, a stamen ; 4, style and stigmas; 5, calyx 

 ,nd ovary ; 6, cross-section of ovary ; 7, fruit ; 8, moniliform hair of corolla ; alt 

 enlarged. 





