PLATE 508. 



COBDIA OAPFRA, SOND. (Flora Capensis Vol. IV, Sec. 2, p. 4.) 

 Natural Order, BORAGINE^E. 



A shrub or small tree, often not more than 6 to 8 feet high, but occasionally 

 reaching to 30 or 40 feet, with stem 10 to 1 5 inches in diameter, branches glabrous, 

 terete. Leaves alternate or scattered, on long slender petioles, differing in shape 

 from ovate to ovate-lanceolate, serrate or dentate, but differing in number, shape 

 and depth of the teeth ; tapering to both ends, mature ones quite glabrous, 2 to 

 4^ inches long, 1 to If wide in centre ; petiole up to 2^ inches long. Inflorescence 

 paniculate, peduncles short, flowers yellow-green. Calyx tubular, minutely and 

 irregularly 3-4-lobed, glabrous externally, pubescent internally, lobes rounded, 

 the whole calyx 2 to 3 lines long, said to be enlarged in fruit, (our specimens have 

 flowers only). Corolla gamopetalous, 3-4-lines long, greenish yellow, irregularly 

 4-5-lobed, the lobes oblong, glabrous. Stamens 4, on corolla tube at throat, about 

 half or more the length of corolla lobes ; filaments equalling or a little longer than 

 the anthers. Ovary superior, ovate, glabrous, 4-celled, cells 1-seeded; style 

 exserted, 2-fid, its branches again more or less deeply 2-fid. Fruit drupaceous, of 

 4 or fewer 1-seeded cells, (not seen by us). 



Habitat : NATAL: Inanda 1800 ft. alt., Wood 682; near Durban, Gueinzius 97; 

 Wilms 1914; and without precise locality G-errard, 263. 



The genus Cordia includes some 250 species found in warm regions of both 

 hemispheres, the above described being the only South African one. Sim says 

 the timber is soft, tough, used for yokes, fencing poles, &c., and that it lasts 

 well underground, the trunks are often inclined and seldom quite straight. It is 

 known to the natives as um-Nofunofu, and in the early days of the colony the 

 wood was used by them for the purpose of obtaining fire by strong friction with 

 a harder wood. 



The specimen here figured was gathered at the edge of a wood on the coast, 

 and almost if not quite within the reach of salt spray in times of strong wind and 

 rough sea. 



Fig. 1 , calyx ; 2, corolla opened showing stamens ; 3, pistil ; 4, cross section 

 of ovary ; all enlarged. 



