PLATE Sii2. 



Albbeta magna, B. M. (F1. Cap. Vol. Ill, p. 16.) 

 Natural Order, Rubiaoeji. 



A tree up to 20 feet or more in height, bearing handsome scarlet flowers and 

 seed-vessels ; twigs grey or dark-coloured, deeply scarred by marks of fallen leaves. 

 Leaves aggregated at ends of the twigs, opposite or ternate, petiolate, stipulate, 

 oblong to elhptical-oblong, entire, coriaceous, glabrous, margins recurved, 4 to 5 

 inches long, 1^ to 2 inches broad, narrowed gradually to the very short petiole ; 

 stipules cup-like, rounded and with a minute tooth at each side. Inflorescence 

 paniculate with oymose branches, pedicels 3 to 4 lines long, bracteate at base, 

 bracts minute. Calyx tube 10-ribbed, turbinate, limb 5-occasionally 6-lobed, two 

 or three of the lobes becoming much larger, and crimson in fruit, 12 to 14 lines 

 by 3-4 lines, veiny. Corolla gamopetalous, tube cylindrical, gradually widening 

 to throat, incurved, puberulous, 8 to 10 lines long, 3 lines wide at throat; limb 

 5-fid, lobes deltoid, acute, to 1^ line long. Stamens 5, included, sessile on corolla 

 tube a little below the throat ; anthers, linear, apiculate, 2-celled. Ovary 2-ceUed, 

 cells 1-ovuled. Fruit dry, oblong, 10-ribbed, crowned with 2-3-4-of the enlarged, 

 oblong, veiny, leaflike calyx lobes, the whole bright crimson. 



Habitat: Natal: 1000 to 2000 feet, Drege; without precise locality, January 

 and February, Gerrard Sf McKen 1 358 ; Inanida 2000 feet. Wood (in Government 

 Herbarium 756) ; near Maritzburg. Mitchell (in Government Herbarium 6417) ; 

 Zwaartkop 3-4000 feet, March, Wylie in Herbarium (Wood 11089.) 



The genus Alberta includes two species only, one in Madagascar, the other in 

 Natal ; it is named in honour of Albertus Magnus who lived in the 1 3th Century 

 and wrote a work entitled " De Vegetabilibus et Plantis." A. magna so far as 

 known to us has been found in Natal only, though probably it occurs in Pondoland. 

 It is found only at from 1800 to 3000 feet above sea level, and when in flower or 

 fruit is a strilang object, which is conspicuous from a considerable distance. It 

 has been grown in England from seeds sent by the writer, and has flowered at 

 Kew and other places also, and is well worth cultivation. 



Fig. 1, calyx, ovary and style; 2, corolla opened; 3, a stamen, front view; 

 4, same, back view ; 5, cross section of ovary ; 6, portion of inflorescence with 

 fruit, naimral size, remainder enlarged. 



