PLATE 325. 



OCIMUM SUAVE, Willd. (Fl. Trop. Afr., Vol. V., p. 338). 

 Natural Order, LABIATAE. 



A much branched perei nial undershrub, 18 inches to 4 feet high, bearing 

 numerous white flowers, which are sometimes tinged with pink. Stems and 

 branches quadrangular, densely pilose, the hairs jointed. Leaves opposite, petiolate, 

 exstipulate, ovato-attenuate, margins crenato-serrate ; 2 to 4 inches long, 2 to 4 

 inches wide, pubescent on both surfaces, with jointed hairs ; petioles | to 1 inch 

 long, pilose like the stems and branches, and with similar hairs. Racemes densely 

 panicled, axillary arid terminal, reaching to 6 inches or more long, peduncles, 

 pedicels, and calyx densely pilose and glandular. Calyx gamosepalous, when in 

 fruit % inch long, tube campanulate, upper lobe orbicular, as long as the tube, and 

 decurrent on it, lateral ones minute, subulate, two lower ones connate nearly to 

 apex, pilose and glandular externally. Bracts ovate, acuminate, piloso and 

 glandular. Corolla gamopetalous, a little longer than the calyx, tube snort, limb 

 bilabiate, upper lip shortly 4-lobed, lower ovate, reflexed. Stamens didynamous, 

 declinate, inserted on corolla tube, exserted, the two upper ones toothed above the 

 base; anthers l-cell'-d. Ovary superior, 4-lobed, 4-seeded ; style filiform, 2-fid, 

 proceeding from the centre of the ovarian lobes. Disk cup-like, toothed. Seeds 

 small, brown, sub-globose, shining, rugulose. 



Habitat: NATAL: Near Durban, 150 feet alt., March, Wood, No. 1812; Zulu- 

 land, near Eshowe, 1,500 feet alt., April, Wood, No. 3975. 



Drawn and described from specimens gatheied near Durban, 500 feet alt., 

 May, Wood, No. 9040. 



The genus Ocimum includes about 60 species, natives of the warm regions of 

 both hemispheres. Of these 43 are found in Tropical Africa, and 8 or 10 in South 

 Africa. Some of the species rs 0. basilicum (Basil) are used in cookery, and others 

 are used medicinally. One species, 0. riride, a native of Tropical Africa and Asia, 

 has lately come prominently into notice on account of its supposed value in repel- 

 ling mosquitoes, and it is at least possible that the plant here described may have 

 similar properties. The whole plant is thickly gland-dotted, and powerfully scented 

 even when dry, and flies placed in a bottle with a few capsules of this plant were 

 soon killed, while flies placed in a similar bottle at the same time were liberated 

 three hours afterwards without suffering at all from their imprisonment. Plants 

 will be reared here for experiment during the summer months. The natives use 

 the plant in perfumery, and call it u-Qabukulu. 



Fig. I , flower ; 2, bract ; 3, jointed hair ; 4, corolla opened ; 5, stamens ; 6, 



disk and pistil ; 7, calyx opened ; all enlarged. 



