17 



PLATE 286. 



ViTis HTPOLEUCA, Harv. (Cissus hypoleuca Fl. Cap. Cap. Vol. 1, p. 252). 



Natural Order, AMPBLiDBiE. 



A weak climbing plant with yellow flowers. Stems terete, pubescent, wide 

 climbing ; tendrils forked. Leaves alternate, petiolate, stipulate, pedate ; petioles 

 subterete, swollen, and a little curved at base; 1-J to 2 inches long; stipules 

 broad-based, strongly falcate. Leaflets 5, petiolate, uppermost one longest, two 

 lateral ones smaller and spreading, 2 lower smallest, deflexed ; ovate to ovato- 

 oblong, bluntly serrate and sub-mucronate, glabrous, dark green and shining 

 above with strongly marked and sunk veins and veinlets, pale and densely tomen- 

 tose beneath, veins and veinlets very prominent ; upper one 2^ to 3^ inches long, 

 1-^ to 2^ inches wide, lateral ones 2 to 3^ inches long, 1^ to 3|- wide, lowest ones 

 1 to 2^ inches long, f to 1^ wide ; petioles ribbed above, 2 to 4 lines long. In- 

 florescence cymose, axillary, flat topped, diffuse with spreading branches, peduncles 

 axillary, 1^ to 8 lines long, pubescent. Calyx cupshaped, obsoletely crenate, 

 pubescent. Petals 4-5, inserted outside the disk, hooded, strongly reflexed, 

 pubescent, deciduous. Stamens 4-5, inserted with the petals and opposite to 

 them, filaments erect, longer than styles, pink towards apex ; anthers 2-celled, 

 introrse. Disk 4-5 lobed, lobes white below, yellow at apex. .Ovary superior, 

 surrounded by lobes of the disk, 2-celled, cells 2-ovuled; style 1, cylindrical; 

 stigma truncate, pink. Fruit a globose berry usually 1 -seeded by abortion; 4 to 6 

 lines diameter, densely tomentose. 



Habitat .- Natal : Near Durban, 160 feet alt, December, Wood No. 4086 ; 

 March, No. 8448, and without locality Gueimius. 



Drawn and described from V\'ood's No. 8448. 



In the Flora Capensis, Vol. 1 page 252, this plant is described as Cissus 

 hypoleuca, Harv., but the genus Cissus is now abolished, there being no generic 

 difference between it and the older genus Vitis. This genus which includes the 

 different species of Grape Vines contains according to the Genera Plantarum some 

 230 species of which we have in Natal 16 to 18, the fruits of two only of them are 

 known to be edible and are sometimes used for preserving. The above described 

 species is not uncommon in coast districts, and is also found in the midlands, it is 

 of no economic value, though the natives use a decoction of the stems as a cattle 

 medicine, and call the plant u-Degane. 



Fig. 1, flower with one corolla lobe and one stamen removed; 2, calyx; 3, 

 corolla lobe ; 4, stamen ; 6, disk, style and stigma ; 6, cross section of ovary ; all 

 enlarged. 



