PLATE 321. 
Pleoteonia spinosa, Klotzscli, (Fl, Cap., Vol. III., p. 18). 
Natural Order, Rubiaoeae. 
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 f to 1^ inch long. 
Branches spreading, greyish-white, glabrous, terete, younger ones pubescent. 
Lt 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, ^ to 1 j inch wide ; 
petioles 1 to 3 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 s^hort, 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 1-ovuled ; style short, 
stigma sub-capitate, 2 or 'S lobed. Fruit a 2-celled berry, crowned with the limb 
of the calyx, compressed, one cell often abortive. 
Habitat : Natal : Berea, 150 feet alt., October, Wood, No. 1726 ; Berea, July 
Wood. 
Drawn and described from specimens gathered on Berea, July, 1903. 
The genus Plectronia, according lo the "Index Kewensis," includes 36 species, 
of which 6 are South African, the remainder widely dispersed in the Eastern 
Hemisphere, and to these one, at least (P. locuples, K. Schum), and probably also 
others, have been added since the publication of that work. 
In 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 Cantliium," and I 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. 
