11 



PLATE 209. 



Trichilia alata, N. B. Brown (Kew. Bull. 1896, p. 160). 

 Natural Order, Meliacbj!. 



A small bushy tree 15-25 feet high. Bark dark coloured, rugose. Leaves 

 alternate, petiolate, 3-7 foliolate, lf-6 inches long, ^-3 inches wide. Leaflets 

 opposite, sessile, elliptic-oblong, cuneate-obovate, oblong-lanceolate, oblong or 

 lanceolate, obtuse or retuse, base cuneate, margins a little recurved, coriaceous, 

 dark green, midrib plainly visible on both surfaces ; 1-2 inches long, rhachis 

 broadly winged, petiole below the leaflets less conspicuously so, -|-1:^ inch long. 

 Flowers white, in small axillary, terminal or subterminal corymbs, which are 6-10 

 lines diameter, each containing 10-30 flowers. Peduncles 4-14 lines long; 

 pedicels ^1 line long. Calyx gamosepalous, bluntly 4-toothed, glabrous. 

 Corolla of 4 elliptic or ellintical-ovate obtuse petals, which are glabrous on the 

 outer surface, and minutely white pubescent on the veins of inner surface. Disk 

 4-lobed. Stamens 8, the filaments united in a tube which is 8-toothed at apex, 

 the alternate teeth longer, an anther seated on each tooth, the tube glabrous on 

 outer surface, villous with white hairs within, f-1 line long, adnate to disk at base, 

 the free portion of the filament very short, glabrous. Anthers oblong, obtuse, 

 glabrous, 2-celled, introrse. Ovary ovate, 2-celled, cells 2-ovuled. Fruit com- 

 pressed, globose, 2-seeded, seeds plano-convex. 



Habitat: Natal: Umhloti, 1,800 feet alt, August, Wood 1022; Groenberg, 

 1,800 feet alt, September, Wood 1043; near Pinetown, 1,100 feet alt, September, 

 Wood 3043 ; 5439. 



Drawn and described from specimens sent from Pinetown by Mr. H. W. 

 Currie, November, 1899. 



Apparently a rare tree in Natal, since we have not met with it except in the 

 localities quoted above, but it has been collected in Transvaal near Barberton by 

 Mr. Galpin. We know of no use to which it has been put and the natives have 

 no specific name for it. It is a handsome tree when well grown, but does not 

 attain a large size. 



Fig. 1, a flower ; 2, same, 2 lobes of corolla removed ; 3, staminal tube ; 4, 

 stamen front and side view ; all enlarged. 



