PLATE 325. 
Ocimum suave, Willd. (Fl. Trop. Afr., Vol. V., p. 338). 
Natural Order, Lasrarar. 
A much branched pere:nial undershrub, 18 inches to 4 feet high, bearing 
numerous white flowers, which are sometimes tinged with pink. Stems and 
branches quadrangular, densely pilose, the hairs jointed. Leaves opposite, petiolate, 
exstipulate, ovato-attenuate, margins crenato-serrate; 2 to 4 inches long, 2 to 43 
inches wide, pubescent on both surfaces, with jointed hairs; petioles } to 1 inch 
long, pilose like the stems and branches, and with similar hairs. Racemes densely 
panicled, axillary and terminal, reaching to 6 inches or more long, peduncles, 
pedicels, and calyx densely pilose and glandular. Calyx gamosepalous, when in 
fruit + inch long, tube campanulate, upper lobe orbicular, as long as the tube, and 
decurrent on it, lateral ones minute, subulate, two lower ones connate nearly to 
apex, pilose and glandular externally. Bracts ovate, acuminate, pilose and 
glandular. Corolla gamopetalous, a little longer than the calyx, tube short, limb 
bilabiate, upper lip shortly 4-lobed, lower ovate, reflexed. Stamens didynamous, 
declinate, inserted on corolla tube, exserted, the two upper ones toothed above the 
base; anthers 1-celled. Ovary superior, 4-lobed, 4-seeded; style filiform, 2-fid, 
proceeding from the centre of the ovarian lobes. Disk cup-like, toothed. Seeds 
small, brown, sub-globose, shining, rugulose. 
Habitat; Nata: Near Durban, 150 feet alt., March, Wood, No. 1812; Zulu- 
land, near Hshowe, 1,500 feet alt., April, Wood, No. 3975. 
Drawn and described from specimens gathered near Durban, 500 feet alt., 
May, Wood, No. 9040. 
The genus Ocimum includes about 60 species, natives of the warm regions of 
both hemispheres. Of these 43 are found in Tropical Africa, and 8 or 10 in South 
Africa. Some of the species es O. basilicum (Basil) are used in cookery, and others 
are used medicinally. One species, O. viride, a native of Tropical Africa and Asia, 
has lately come prominently into notice on account of its supposed value in repel- 
ling mosquitoes, and it is at least possible that the plant here described may have 
similar properties. ‘The whole plant is thickly gland-dotted, and powerfully scented 
even when dry, and flies placed in a bottle with a few capsules of this plant were 
soon killed, while flies placed in a similar bottle at the same time were liberated 
three hours afterwards without suffering at all from their imprisonment. Plants 
will be reared here for experiment during the summer months. The natives use 
the plant in perfumery, and call it u-Qabukulu. 
Fig. 1, flower; 2, bract; 3, jointed hair; 4, corolla opened; 5, stamens; 6, 
disk and pistil ; ip calyx opened ; all enlarged. 
