PLATE 321, 
Prucrronta spinosa, Klotzsch. (Fl. Cap., Vol. IIL, p. 18). 
Natural Order, Ruptaceas. 
A shrub, or small tree, reaching to 20 feet in height, and armed with sharp 
spines, which are decussate on the stem and branches, and % to 12 inch long. 
Branches spreading, greyish-white, glabrous, terete, younger ones pubescent. 
Li aves opposite, petiolate, stipulate, fascicled on short arrested branchlets, or soli- 
tary, oval, ovate or oblong. obtuse at both ends, or tapering slightly to base, margins 
entire; minutely pubescent on both surfaces, and with minute pits surrounded by 
short hairs in angles of veins beneath; 1 to 2 inches long, 4 to 1} inch wide; 
petioles 1 to 8 lines long, pubescent. Stipules subulate from a broad base, hirsute, 
deciduous. Flowers clustered in the axils, green, the clusters from 2, to 10 or 12 
flowered, shorter than the leaves; peduncles very short, branched, pedicels 1 to 2 
lines long. Calyx gamosepalous, very shortly 5-toothed, tube hemispherical, 
glabrous. Corolla gamosepalous, 5-lobed, tube very short, sub-cylindrical, lobes 
oblong, patent, reflexed or revolute, with a few jointed bairs in throat. Stamens 5, 
alternate with corolla lobes, inserted in throat of corolla, filaments very short ; 
anthers oblong, 2-celled. Ovary inferior, 2-celled, cells l-ovuled; style short, 
stigma sub-capitate, 2 or 3 lobed. Fruit a 2-celled berry, crowned with the limb 
of the calyx, compressed, one cell often abortive. 
Habitat : Navau: Berea, 150 feet alt., October, Wood, No. 1726; Berea, July 
Wood. 
Drawn and described from specimens gathered on Berea, July, 1908. 
The genus Plectronia, according to the “ Index Kewensis,” includes 36 species, 
of which 6 are South African, the remainder widely dispersed in the Hastern 
Hemisphere, and to these one, at least (P. locuples, K. Schum), and probably also 
others, have been-added since the publication of that work. 
Tn the generic description of Plectronia in the “ Fl. Capensis,”’ the stigmas are 
said to be “ subcapitate, of 2 approximate lamellae.’’? In our specimens the lobes, 
can scarcely be called lamellae, and are often sub-globose, and the stigmas are 
usually 3-lobed, and only occasionally 2-lobed. In a note added by Professor 
Harvey, he says: “Too nearly allied to Canthium,” and | understand that these 
genera are now united under Plectronia. 
The native name of the plant is “ um-Pembetu,” but I cannot learn that they 
have any special use for the plant. Mr. Fourcade, in his ‘ Report on Natal 
Forests,” says of it: ‘* Wood fine grained, heavy, yellowish” (Pappe). 
Fig. 1, flower; 2, corolla opened; 3,a stamen; 4, style and stigmas; 5, calyx 
and ovary; 6, cross-section of ovary; 7, fruit; 8, moniliform hair of corolla; all 
enlarged. 
