turned of a dull yellow or purple or brown, instead of their 

 usual brilliant hues. The genus was named in honour of 

 the Russian Professor Parrot, who made the first ascent of 

 Mount Ararat in 1829. The wood of Farrotia is stated to be 

 excessively hard and durable, whence the tree is called in Per- 

 sian Temir-Agatsch, or "iron tree." There is but one other 

 species of the genus, P. Jacquemontiana, Decne., a native of 

 the Kashmir Himalaya. 



Descr. A small tree, ten to fifteen feet high, with spread- 

 ing branches and very hard wood. Leaves alternate, on 

 short downy petioles, three to four inches long, one and a 

 half to two and a half inches broad, broadly ovate- or obo- 

 vate-oblong, rounded at the base, coarsely and crenately 

 toothed beyond the middle, more or less jmbescent below 

 when young with silky hairs, beautifully plaited (like beech- 

 leaves) in vernation, brilliantly coloured in autumn. Flowers 

 appearing before the leaves in lateral and terminal involu- 

 crate heads on the young branchlets ; bracts oblong, decidu- 

 ous, outer dark and scaly, inner membranous, greenish. 

 Flowers small, conspicuous for their spreading stamens with 

 scarlet anthers. Calyx of five to seven oblong lobes, with 

 silky apices. Corolla none. Filaments half an inch long, 

 five times as long as the calyx-lobes ; anthers linear, apicu- 

 late. Ovary of two carpels, with long recurved styles, and 

 several ovules in each cell.' — J. I). H. 



Fig. 1. Male flower. 2. Anther. 3. Ovary, t. Bipe fruit (from dried 

 specimen) : — all magnified. 



