Carissa.] lxxxiv. apocynacej;: (staff). 89 



hairy tip. Fruit baccate, globose to oblong. Seeds usually 1-4, rarely 

 more, peltate, plano-convex ; hilum central; endosperm horny; cotyledons 

 ovate ; radicle superior. — Much branched, straggling and usually very 

 ^spinous shrubs or small trees, rarely climbing ; spines opposite, simple, 

 rarely forked, often very stout. Leaves coriaceous, very variable on 

 the same individual ; axillary stipules ; axillary glands very minute 

 and few, or 0. Inflorescence often umbelliform, or corymbiform, and 

 much-contracted, terminal or pseudo-axillary, rarely cymose, lax and 

 few-iiowered ; flowers subsessile, white or tinged with pink. Berries 

 often edible. 



About 18 species, in the tropics of the Old World, extratropical South Africa and 

 Australia. 



*Er-CARissA. — Corolla-lobes overlapping- to the riglit. 



Ovules 1-4 in each cell. Spines simple . . 1. C. ednlis. 



**Ardfina. — Corolla-lobes overlapping to the left. Ovules 

 1-10 in each cell. Spines bifurcate. 

 Flowers pentamerous. Ovules solitary . . . 2. C. Arduina. 



Flowers tetramerous. Ovules in each cell . . 3. C tetramera. 



1. C. edulis, Vahl,Si/mh.i.22. A very much branched straggling or 

 climbing shrub, glabrous, or young branches with short spreading hairs 

 but soon glabrescent; spines simple, straight or recurved, 1-2 in. long, 

 rarely almost suppressed. Leaves ovate to ovate-elliptic or sublanceolate, 

 rarely orbicular, 9-24 lin. long, 9-18 lin. broad, sometimes much smaller, 

 rounded at the base or subcuneate, acute and often mucronate, rarely 

 obtuse, coriaceous, glabrous or very soon glabrescent ; nerves 3-5, faint on 

 both sides; petiole 1-1 J lin. long. Calyx 1 J-2 lin. long ; sepals lanceo- 

 late, acuminate, ciliolate, glabrous or puberulous. Corolla white or 

 purple, or purple turning white, glabrous or minutely hairy at the 

 mouth and on the inner surface of the lobes, G-9 (rarely 4-6) lin. long ; 

 dobes ovate or oblong, acute, 1 J-4 lin. long. Berry globose, purple to 

 black, l-a in. in diam., edible. Seeds 2-4.— Delile, Cent. PI. Afr. Caill., 

 .11, t. 2, fig. 1 ; DC. Prod. viii. P>34 ; Hook. Niger Fl. 446 ; Ficalho, PL 

 Uteis Afr. Port. 221 ; L. Planchon, Prod. Apocyn. 141, 286, 292 ; Engl, 

 in Engl. Jahrb. viii. 64; Hochgebirgsfl. Trop.-Afr. 340 ; Deflers, Voy. 

 Yemen, 163 ; Lewin in Engl. Jahrb. xvii. Beibl. 41, 49, 50, and m 

 Virchow's Archiv. Path. Anat. u. Phys. Bd. 134, 246; Durand & 

 -Schinz, Etudes Fl. Congo, i. 1S9 ; K. Schum. in Engl. Jahrb. xxviii. 

 453. C. dulcis, Schumach. & Thonn. Beskr. Guin. PI. 146 ; DC. I.e. 333. 

 Cpubesoens, DC. I.e. 334 ; Hook. Niger Fl. 446. 0. candoUeana, Jaub. 

 Si Spach, 111. Fl. Or. v. t. 497. C. cornifolia, Jaub. & Spach, I.e. t. 

 498. C. rlchardia7ia, Jaub. & Spach, I.e. t. 496 ; 0. Schimperi, Balf. f. 

 in Trans. Roy. Soc. Eiin. xxxi. 157, not of A. DC. ; 0. sp. no. 3, Oliv. 

 in Trans. Linn. Soc. xxix. 107. Antnra, Forsk. Fl. .^gypt.-Arab. 

 63. A.hadiensis, G. F. Gmel. Syst. 405. Arduina edulis, Spreng. Syst. 

 i. 669; K. Schum. in Engl. & Prantl, Pflanzenfam. iv. ii. 127, and in 

 Engl. Pfl. Ost-Afr. C. 315, and in Schlechter, Westafr. Kautschuk- 

 Exped. 304. Carandas e:hdis, Hiern in Cat. Afr. PI. Welw. ii. 



