PLATE 529. 



HOMALICTM BUFESCENS, Bth. (Fl. Cap. Vol. I, p. 72, sub Blackwellia). 

 Natural Order SAMYDAOE.E. 



A much branched shrub bearing axillary panicles of small white flowers. 

 Branches and branchlets dark coloured, lenticillate. Leaves alternate, petiolate, 

 exstipulate, oblong to narrowly oblong or oblong-lanceolate, 1-| to 2 inch long, f 

 inch wide, quite obtuse or tapering to a blunt apex, margins entire or very irregu- 

 larly crenato-serrate, gradually narrowed to base, quite glabrous, dark green and 

 shining above, duller beneath ; petiole 2 to 3 lines long, channelled above, usually 

 purplish in colour. Inflorescence of numerous axillary and terminal panicles, 1^ 

 to 2 inches long, peduncles and pedicels slender, minutely hispid. Calyx 7-8- 

 parted, the lobes linear, pubescent on their surfaces and ciliate with whitish hairs, 

 f to 1-line long, with an opposite gland at the base of each ; petals equalling the 

 sepals, and with similar pubescence, inserted at throat of calyx. Stamens 

 equalling the petals in number, a little longer and inserted with them ; filaments 

 filiform ; anthers 2-celled, subglobose, parallel, splitting longitudinally. Ovary 

 half superior, 1 -celled, with 3 parietal placentas; styles 4, slender, subulate, 

 spreading ; ovules few, pendulous. Capsule not seen. 



Habitat: NATAL: Umzinyati Falls, 300 to 500 feet alt., February, Wood 1333; 

 same locality, October, Wood 11463. 



In the Flora Capensis Vol. I, p. 72, this shrub is described as BlacJcwellia 

 rufescens, and included in the Order Bixaceae, but it has since been removed to 

 Samydacese, and is now known as above ; it is not a common plant in Natal as the 

 records given above are the only ones known to us. Drege and Gueinzius also 

 collected it in Natal, but the precise locality is not given ; the natives do not seem 

 to have any specific name for it, and do not put it to any use, so far as we are 

 aware. It was first seen by the writer in February, 1881, and was not again met 

 with until October, 1909. In Sim's splendid work "Forest Flora of Cape Colony" 

 it is figured and described and is said to be " a coast ward tree from the Fish 

 River eastward, and also found in Natal; it has dense, hard timber, but is seldom 

 large enough to have economic value ; its shining leaves, and abundant white 

 flowers make it an ornamental garden tree." 



Fig. 1, branch with leaves and inflorescence; 2, flower; 3, stamen; 4, pistil: 

 5, cross section of ovary; except fig 1, all enlarged. 



