attractive in September, when its branches are laden 
with brilliantly coloured fruits pendulous on long slender 
stalks. Each seed is completely enveloped in a fleshy 
scarlet imbricately five-lobed arillus. These seeds are 
produced in abundance and render its propagation easy. 
Description.—Shrub or small tree, in the wild state 
reaching 25 ft. in height with a trunk 1 ft. in diameter; 
winter-buds ovoid-fusiform, acute, about + in. long; 
branches spreading ; twigs of the previous season greenish- 
brown, polished ; of the present season herbaceous, green. 
Leaves assuming a distichous position from a twisting 
of the internodes, ovate-oblong, acuminate, subacute, 
rounded or almost truncate at the base, 13-3 in. long, 
1-1} in. wide, thinly papery, dull, midrib slightly raised 
above, venation indistinct, paler beneath with nerves 
and venation very distinct ; petiole 1-1 in. long. Dichasia 
2-3 times forked, arising in the axils of the lower 
leaves of the shoots of the previous year ; peduncle 
13-2} in. long; pedicels 1-2 in. long. Flowers 5-merous, 
about 4 in. across. Calyc 1 in. across; sepals trans- 
versely elliptic. Petals suborbicular, greenish-purple. 
Disk 5-lobed, thick, green. Stamens attached to the 
disk-lobes ; filaments j4 in. long, jointed at the base; 
anther inflexed in bud, wide reniform, cells lateral 
quite confluent at the tip, and opening by a continuous 
chink; in flower erect, after dehiscing patelliform. 
Ovary sunk in the disk, 5-locular; stigma subsessile, 
capitate; ovules 2 in each cell, pendulous. Capsule 
carmine, depressed-globose, usually 3-4-seeded. Seeds 
completely enveloped in a scarlet arillus which is imbri- 
cately 5-lobed at the tip, about 1 in. long. 
6 
Meera en 
Fig. 1, flower-bud ; 2, flower from which the anthers have fallen ; 8, stamen ; 
> spneltadinal section of a flower; 5, seed enclosed in its arillus; 6, the same, 
with arillus laid open ; 7, the same, with arillus removed :—ail enlarged. 
