PLATE 329. 



PSYOHOTBIA CAPENSIS, VATKE. (Fl. Cap. Vol. 3, p. 21. sub Grumilea). 



Natural Order, RUBIACEJ:. 



A shrub or small tree, 8 to 15 feet high, with large leaves and yellow flowers. 

 Branches terete, green. Leaves opposite, simple, stipulate, petiolate, pinnate 

 veined, glandular in axils of veins beneath, elliptic to obovate, margins quite 

 entire, obtuse at apex, gradually tapering at base to the petiole, glabrous and 

 shining above, lighter coloured and dull beneath, 4 to 7 inches long, including the 

 petiole, 1^ to 2-J inches wide, petiole f to 1 inch long ; stipules broad, mucronulate, 

 coriaceous, deciduous. Inflorescence corymbose, corymbs trichotomous, peduncu- 

 late ; common peduncle if- to 1 -^ inch long, bearing a pair of oblanceolate bracts at 

 base of the secondary peduncles ; pedicels \ to 1 line long. Calyx gamosepalous, 

 urceolate, with 5 very short aciite or obtuse teeth, the whole margin ciliolate ; -| to 

 1 line long. Corolla gamopetalous, deciduous, yellow, 5-lobed, 2-| to 3 lines long, 

 tube cylindrical a little longer than the lobes, lobes ovate, strongly reflexed, with a 

 dense ring of white hairs in throat. Stamens 5, on corolla tube, anthers oblong, 

 2-celled. Ovary inferior, 2-celled, cells 1-ovuled. Stigma bifid. Fruit a globose 

 berry, 2-celled, 2-seeded, red when ripe, 4 to 5 lines diameter, smooth and 

 glabrous. 



Habitat : NATAL : Drege ; Sanderson ; Krauss No. 428 ; Gerrard $ McKen No. 

 830 ; Wood No. 306 ; October Wood No. 9097. 



Drawn and described from Wood's 9097, gathered near Durban. 



A shrub with glossy leaves, bearing in the season large trusses of yellow 

 flowers. In the Flora Capensis it appears as Grumilea capensis, Sond, but that 

 genus is now merged in Psi/chotria, a genus which includes about 500 species in- 

 habiting tropical and sub-tropical countries in both hemispheres. In the descrip- 

 tion of the genus Gruinilea in the Flora Capensis it is stated that the stamens are 

 pubexserted and the style exserted, the fact being that the flowers are dimorphic, 

 the two forms appearing on different plants, in the long-styled form it is as stated 

 in the Flora Capensis, in the long-stammened form the stamens are exserted and 

 the style included. The native name of the plant is i-Biquongo and the roots are 

 used as an ingredient in emetics. Fourcade in his " Report on Natal Forests" says 

 of this tree, " Knysna, Eastern Province and Natal Coast. A tree 9 to 1 8 inches 

 in diameter, 20 to 30 feet high," and quoting from Pappe he says, " Bark ash- 

 coloured, thin, wood citron yellow, hard, tough, and useful for many purposes." 

 We have never met with it so large as here stated. 



Fig. 1, flower opened, long-styled form ; 2, same, short-styled form ; 3, 

 stamen ; 4, longitudinal section of ovary, style and stigma ; all enlarged. 



