PLATE 591. 



NOTOBUXUS NATALENSIS, Oliver. (le. Plan. XIV., 78, t. 1400 (1882).) 

 Nat. Order, EUPHORBIACE.E. 



A slender glabrous undershrub, 4 to 6 feet in height. Leaves opposite, 

 petiolate, elliptical, obtuse or obtusely acuminate, 2 to 4 inches long ; | to 2 inches 

 wide, smooth, dark green and shining ; petiole 3 to 6 lines long. Flowers 

 monoecious, green, fasciculate in axils of the leaves. Male flowers. Perianth 

 4-parted to base, the segments decussate, oblong, obtuse, dark green, the lateral 

 ones more or less boat-shaped, exterior in aestivation. Stamens 6, one opposite 

 each of the lateral segments, two opposite the front, and two opposite the back 

 segments, all snbsessile ; anthers oblong, dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary 0. 

 Female flowers. Perianth similar to the male; Stamens 0; ovary ovoid, glabrous, 

 3 -celled, cells 2-ovuled, ovules pendulous ; styles 3, divergent, stigmatose on inner 

 surface. Fruit capsular, capsules loculicidally 3-valved, valves 2-horned. 



Habitat: NATAL. In shady wood Inanda, 1,800 ft. alt. Wood 1357, 

 September; in light shade Bluff, near Durban, 2-300 ft. alt. September to 

 December, Wood 11,946, " previously collected without expanded flowers by Mr. 

 T. Cooper (1862), Tongaat No. 3468." 



The genus Notobuxus as far as at present known is represented by this one 

 species only, and so far has only been found in the coast districts of South Africa 

 from the Kei to Natal. Mr Sim in his Forest Flora says of it: "A small tree 

 " usually only of wattle size, but occasionally up to 30 feet in height, and 1 foot in 

 " diameter. * * * and Mr. Carlson, District Forest Officer, Butterworth, 

 " writes : only grows along the coast, produces our best wattles for straightness, 

 " strength and resistance against insect borer. Mr. Sim also says, the wood is like 

 " the (Jape Box in colour and texture, very close grained." 



Professor Oliver, who described the genus, says: "This plant is entirely 

 c Buxns, except in the two additional stamens, and total absence of any rudiment 

 " of a gynoecium in the male flowers, thus forming a transition to the genera 

 " Simmondsia and Styloceras." 



The plant is not uncommon in the bush on the top of the Bluff, and it will be 

 noticed that the capsule before dehiscence appears to be 3-horned, but after 

 opening, it will be seen that each valve is 2-horned, making 6 in all. 



Fi. 1, cluster of male and female flowers ; 2, female flower with bracts, 3, 

 bract, inner view; 4, perianth lobe, inner view; 5, longitudinal section of ovary; 

 6, cross section of same ; 7, male flower ; 8, stamen ; 9, capsule before dehiscence ; 

 10, same after dehiscence ; figs. 9 and 10 natural size, remainder enlarged. 



