Rauwolfia
(named in honour of Leonhard Rauwolf, physician at Augsburg, who travelled through Palestine and other Eastern countries in 1753-5). Including Ophioxylon. ORD. Apocynaceae. A genus comprising nearly forty species of stove, glabrous or rarely pubescent trees or shrubs, natives of tropical America, Africa, and Asia, and South Africa. Flowers and fruit usually rather small; calyx short, five-fid or five-parted, eglandulose; corolla salver-shaped, with a cylindrical tube, a constricted throat, and five twisted lobes; peduncles alternating with the terminal leaves, few-flowered, or di-or trichotomously branched; cymelets usually umbelliform. Drupes two, distinct or connate in a two-stoned, bisulcate fruit. Leaves in whorls of three or four, or rarely opposite. Some of the species are rather pretty; the best-known are here described. They thrive in a compost of loam, peat, and sand. Cuttings, inserted in sand, under a glass, in heat, will root readily. All are shrubs, except where otherwise stated.
R. densiflora (dense-flowered). fl. white, many in a shortly pedunculate cyme; corolla limb almost equalling the tube. June. fr. one-seeded. l. lanceolate, acuminate, approximating, sometimes ternate. h. 6ft. East Indies, 1824. (B. R. 1273, under name of Tabernoemontana densiflora.) R. majus (larger). fl. in terminal cymes; corolla white, smaller than in R. serpentina. April. fr. violet, resembling an olive in shape. l. shortly petiolate, elliptic-oblong, acute, paler beneath, quaternately whorled, entire. h. 4ft. Java, 1850. A robust species.
R. nitida (shining). fl. in terminal, few-flowered cymes, shorter than the leaves; corolla white. August. fr. at first yellow, becoming dark purple, sub-globose, bilobed. l. quaternate, ovatelanceolate, acute at both ends, glabrous and shining, the larger ones 4in. to 5in. long, 1 1/4in. to 1 1/2in. broad. h. 10ft. Spain, 1752. Tree.
R. serpentina (serpentine). fl. in sub-umbellate corymbs; corolla white or pink, narrow, nearly 3/4in. long. May. fr. red, globose. l. 3in. to 6in. long, 1 1/2in. to 2 1/2in. broad, membranous, on petioles 1/4in. to 3/4in. long. h. scarcely more than 1ft. East Indies, 1690.
R. ternifolia (ternate-leaved). fl. in axillary, few-flowered cymes; corolla white. May. fr. about the size of a pea. l. ternate, oblong, acuminate, acute at base, reticulate-veined, 1 1/2in. to 2in. long, six to eight lines broad, on very short petioles. Branches rarely warted. h. 3ft. West Indies, 1823. (B. M. 2440.)