PLATE 569. 



Chrtsophtllum yieidipolium, Wood & Franks. Mss. nov. sp. 

 Natural Order, Sapotaoe^. 



A large tree 30 to 50 feet high, with a girth at 6 feet from the ground of 6 

 feet. Trunk usually unbranched for 15 feet or more, and strongly, many-ribbed 

 to the origin of the branches, bark grey, young twigs, petioles, pedicels and calyx 

 lobes finely rusty velvetty tomentose, the older twigs glabrous. Leaves alternate, 

 petiolate, exstipulate, oblong, obtuse or bluntly acuminate, rounded at base, mar- 

 gins entire ; dark glossy green above, lighter and dull beneath, lateral veins very 

 numerous, patent, but not quite horizontal, marginal vein fine, close to the margin ; 

 quite glabrous except the miiirib beneath ; 3 to 4 inches long, ! to If inch wide, 

 petiole 3 to 6 lines long, a little swollen. Flowers 1 to IJ line long, pedicillate, 

 clustered in the axils or on the old twigs, few or many in each cluster (sometimes 

 20 or more), pedicels 2 lines long. Calyx 5-lobed, the lobes free nearly to base, 

 erect, imbricate, ciliate. Corolla 5-lobed, lobes oblong , obtuse, ciliate. Stamens 

 5, inserted half way up the corolla tube and opposite to its lobes, filaments short, 

 anthers 2-celled, extrorse, apiculate. Ovary depressed-globose, 5-celled, cells 1- 

 seeded; densely rusty-pilose ; style twice longer than the ovary, thick, stigma 

 obtuse. Fruit a depressed-globose berry 16 by 13 lines, smooth, glabrous, yellow 

 when ripe, 5-or by abortion 4-seeded, seeds oblong, compressed, keeled at back, 

 testa brown and shining, hilum broadly linear, 9 lines long, 6 lines wide, 3 lines 

 thick in centre, imbedded in a stifE tenaceous substance which is insoluble in water. 



Habitat : Natal. Berea, near Durban, 1 50 to 300 ft. alt. Miss Franks, ( Wood 

 11636). 



This tree was first brought to our notice by Miss Fountaine, an Entomologist 

 who had found caterpillars feeding upon its leaves, but from the twigs and leaves 

 that she brought the plant could not be identified. Before leaving the colony she 

 indicated the place where the trees were found, and Miss Franks afterwards se- 

 cured both flowenng and fruiting specimens, and the tree was found to be quite 

 new to science ; it is not uncommon in the vicinity of Durban. It differs from G. 

 Welwitschii in having much longer petioles, longer pedicels, and flowers twice as 

 large. From G. pruni/olius it differs in the shorter corolla tube, the larger num- 

 ber of flowers, the shape of the fruit, and the shorter seeds which do not taper to 

 base. The genus Chrysophyllum includes 60 or more species in tropical and sub- 

 tropical countries, some of which bear eatable fruits, such as G. cainito, the '' Star 

 Apple " of West Indies. In Africa we have 1 7 species, of which two are now 

 found in Natal, the other being G. natalensis, the fruit of which is eatable. It is 

 known as the " Natal Plum," and to the natives as " Intongwane." Its wood is 

 used for making the milking vessels used by the natives, and which are cut out of 

 the solid wood. The fruit of 0. viridifolium is certainly not eatable, and the value 

 of the .wood, if any, is at present not known to us. 



Fig. 1, a flower; 2, corolla; 3, portion of same showing stamens; 4, a stamen, 

 front view ; 6, same, back view ; 6, pistil ; 7, longitudinal section of same ; 8, cross 

 section of ovary ; 9, fruit; 10, cross section of same; 11, seed; figs. 1 to 8 en- 

 larged ; fi^s. 9, W, II, natural size. 



