PLATE 360. 
Emex AU8TRALIS, Steiuli (Fl. Aiistraliensis, Vol. V., p. 262). 
Natural Order, Poi.vcrONACE.^;. 
A prostrate plant ^vitli mouoecious green flowers, and thorny seed vessels, 
glabrous in all parts. Stems prostrate, reaching to three feet or more long, 
several from a half wood}' rootstock, terete, striate, green or tinged witli red 
especially towards the base, bark tongh. Leaves alternate, petiolate, stipidate, 
olilong or oblong-ovate, very obtuse and rounded at apex, broad and truncate or 
nearly cordate at base, margins quite entire, veins pinnate ; 2 to 7 inches long, 1|- 
to do wide ; petiole channelled aljove, especially in upper portion where it is 
margined by the decurrent lamina of the leaf; 3 to 7 inches long. Stipides thin 
and scarious, sheathing the stem bnt soon deciduous. Inflorescence axillary in 
Avhorldike clusters on an elongated pedmicle, some female flowers sessile at its 
base, a few mixed with the male flowers in lower half of the pedimcle, the upper 
ones all male. Male flowers ; perianth 3 to 5dolied, segments concave. Stamens 
3 to ('), filaments equalling perianth segments ; anthers oljlong, 2-celled. Female 
flowers ; perianth tube turbinate, 6dobed, 3 of the lohes nnich larger than the 
alternate ones and spinescent, the whole perianth enlarged and hardening in fruit. 
Ovary free, 3-angled, 1-seeded ; styles 3, stigmas fringed on inner side, lacerate 
above. Frnit enclosed in the liardened perianth, the 3 longer lobes of whic'li are 
divaricate, and spinous, the 3 smaller ones ovate, acute, erect, not spinous. 
Habitat: Natal: Near Durban, 120 feet alt., dune, Wood No. 9470. 
A troublesome weed known to the yoimg people as " r>evirs thorn " as the 
seed vessels lie on the ground one of the thorns is always erect or nearly so, and 
therefore likely to inflict painfid wounds, and the plant woidd most likely liecome 
a pest in sheep farming districts, Init fortunately it is at present almost confined 
to the coast districts, though I have met with it at an altitude of 2,000 feet, and it 
is cpiite possible that it may find its way still farther into the highlands of the 
C^olony. 
A note in the Flora Australiensis says of the plant. " A common maritime 
plant in South Africa, differing slightly from the Mediterranean species (E. 
spinosa, L^ampd.) in the larger fruiting perianth, less rugose, the spinescent 
segments longer, and the inner erect ones broader and more rounded." 
M]-. Andrew Smith, M.A., in his Avork on medicinal jjlants of the Cape Colony, 
says of this plant : " The leaves are boiled and used as a cabbage in biliousness, 
and also for creating an appetite. They are mildly purgative and diuretic." 
Fig. 1, male flower ; 2, a stamen ; 3, female flower ; 4, ovary and stigmas ; 
5, stigmas enlarged ; 6, fruiting perianth ; 7, cross section of fruit ; all enlarged. 
