ACOKANTHERA SPECTABILIS.

Cape Province, Natal.

Apocynaceae. Tribe Carisseae.

Acokanthera, G. Don.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. ii. p. 696.

Acokanthera spectabilis, Hook. f. Bot. Mag. t. 6359; Fl. Cap. vol. 4, sect. 1, p. 501.

The above figure in the Botanical Magazine was published in 1878, and together with the description which accompanied it was the first recognition that the so-called “Gift Boom” of the Eastern Province consisted of two distinct species. The plant from which the figure in the Botanical Magazine was made, flowered at Kew Gardens in 1878. Mr. T. R. Sim states that he cannot distinguish A. spectabilis, Hook. from A. venenata, G. Don., but regards it as an eastern coastal form. The plant is reputed to be extremely poisonous, and as the fruits are so attractive-looking, it makes the species also a dangerous one. In habit our plant is an evergreen shrub which lends itself to cultivation in the shrubbery; the flowers are very fragrant, and even in fruit the shrub does not lose its beauty, as the dark purple fruits show up conspicuously against the green leaves. The specimen figured here was presented by Mr. J. W. Wickens from the Garden of the Union Buildings, Pretoria.

Description:—Shrub 4-10 ft. high. Branches glabrous. Leaves shortly petioled; petioles 6 mm. long; lamina 7-10 cm. long, 2·2-4 cm. broad, elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate, shortly acuminate, acute, narrowed at the base, glabrous, with the mid-rib distinct below and sunken above. Flowers in many-flowered clusters. Calyx 5-lobed almost to the base, pubescent. Corolla-tube 2 cm. long, narrowly cylindric, pubescent outside, hairy within at the throat; lobes 4 mm. long, 3 mm. broad, elliptic, rounded at the apex. Anthers ovate in outline, with a few hairs at the apex. Style 1·4 mm. long, cylindric; stigma subglobose, with a few hairs at the apex.

[A. spectabilis is very easily distinguished from A. venenata by its longer petioles, usually larger size, and less elliptic shape and different venation of its leaves, the veins (at least in the dried state) being far less prominent and less ascending than they are in A. venenata, and the flowers are much larger, the corolla-tube of A. spectabilis being 14-20 mm. long, whilst those of A. venenata are only 8-12 mm. long. Dried specimens show no intermediates.—N. E. Brown.]