PLATE 276. 



Cassipoubea. vbbtioillata, N. B. Brown (Kew Bull. 1894, p. 5.) 

 Natural Order, Khizophobb^. 



A small copiously branched tree, reaching to 20 feet in height. Bark chest- 

 nut brown, thickly covered with lenticels, glabrous. Leaves usually in verticels 

 of 3, or occasionally 4, often 2 only, petiolate, exstipulate, oblong, obtuse or sub- 

 acute at apex, cuneate or obtuse at base, margins entire or obscurely crenato- 

 serrate ; coriaceous, quite glabrous, dark green and shining above, lighter coloured 

 and duller beneath, veins distinct on both sides; 3 to 5^ inches long, 1^ to 2f 

 inches wide ; petiole 4 to 6 lines long. Flowers densely fascicled in axils of the 

 leaves, white. Calyx tubular widening to apex, C to 7 toothed, teeth triangular, 

 acute or obtuse, the whole calyx 2 lines long, the teeth much shorter than the 

 tube ; pedicels 1-|^ to 2 lines long, articulated in the middle. Petals 5 to 7, very 

 narrow andtapering to base, the apex divided into several narrowly linear fimbrils, 

 and appressedly pubescent. Stamens 10 to 14, monadelphous at base, the short 

 staminal tube bluntly lobed, the alternate stamens aflixed in the sinuses between 

 the lobes, filaments filiform, anthers ovate, 2-celled. Ovary ovoid, densely hirsute 

 at apex, 2-celIed, cells 2-ovuled ; style equalling stamens, stigma minutely bilobed. 

 Seeds pendulous, ellipsoid, with a large, yellow arillus. 



Habitat: Natal: Near Pinetown, 1,100 feet alt. April, Wood No. 3,876; 

 Coedmore ca 500 feet alt. (fruit), June, Wood No. 4,619; Botanic Gardens cult.. 

 December, Wood. 



Figured and described from specimens gathered in Botanic Gardens, Decem- 

 ber, 1901. 



A very handsome tree which is apparently rare, it does not seem to be known 

 to the natives, and in the wild state only two specimens are at present known. The 

 one first found was close to the railway line near Pinetown, the second on Mr. 

 Stainbank's farm at Coedmore, from which tree specimens were sent to the Herbarium 

 for identification, and from it also seeds were kindly sent by Mr. Stainbank, and 

 fr m these seeds the trees now in the Gardens were reared. The seed was received 

 in 1892, plants were put out in 189-1, and flowered for the first time in 1898, they 

 are now about 1 5 feet high and leafy almost to the ground. In a foot note to Mr. 

 Brown's description he says : — 



" I cannot find any characters of generic importance to separate the African 

 Uactylopetalvw, from the American Gassipourea, and therefore have placed this 

 plant under the older name of Gassipourea, to which genus I consider the species 

 of Dactylopetalum should be transferred. G. verticillata is probably nearly related 

 to G. gummiflua, Tul, a Madagascar species I have not seen, and also bears consider- 

 able resemblance to Dactylopetalum Barteri, Hook, f., but is readily distinguished 

 from both by its verticillate leaves, which are sometimes 3, sometimes 4 in a 

 whorl." 



We have seldom found 4 leaves in the whorl, but very frequently only 2, and 

 occasionally branchlets are found on which the leaves are all opposite. 



Fig. 1, a petal ; 2, calyx opened ; 3, staminal tube opened ; 4, ovary, style 

 and stigma ; all enlarged. 



