WIGHT'S ILLUSTRATIONS. 63 
Trophis aspera. Retz, Obs. 5. p. 30. Willd. Sp. Pl. v. 4. p. 
734. Spreng. Syst. v. 3. p. 902. 
Poora-marum. Tamuil. 
A rigid milky Tree, with smooth cinereous bark, and numer- 
ous interwoven, hispid, sparingly milky branchlets. Leaves 
alternate, somewhat bifarious, rigid, subsessile, varying from 
orbicular to obovate; or rhomboid and acuminate, obtuse or 
slightly cordate, entire at the base, from about the middle up- 
wards irregularly serrated, or rather, perhaps, crenated, very 
rough on both sides, bright shining green above, whitish be- 
neath. Male peduncles axillary, aggregate, short, bearing 
six or eight flowers collected into a head. Calyx none (?). 
Corolla 4-parted, divisions hairy, much shorter than thestamens. 
Filaments four, compressed, jointed, elastic, opening with a 
sudden jerk, and scattering, at the same moment, a cloud of 
pollen. Anthers 2-celled, large in proportion to the rest of 
the flower. Female flowers always found on the same tree 
with the male, and not unfrequently, as in the specimen 
figured, on the same branchlet, though more often on distinct 
branches, particularly on young plants. Peduncles axillary, 
Solitary, or in pairs, about half-an-inch long, bearing a small 
bractea, close under the flower. Floral covering, or Calyz (?) 
of six leaves, imbricated 2 and 2 in a treble series, the largest 
pair being within. Styles 2, very long. Pericarp an orange- 
coloured, smooth, compressed, emarginate berry, containing 
one globular seed. 
The characters of this plant do not correspond very satis- 
factorily with those of the genus 7Zrophis, though these are 
modified (apparently for the purpose of bringing it in) by 
Sprengel. The characters of the T. spinosa, unless I have mis- 
taken the plant, are still more at variance with 7rophis, as it has 
a compound berry, and, when in flower, its germen is as thickly 
covered with long villous stigmas as the young fruit of the 
Mulberry. The male flowers agree with those of T. aspera, in 
being capitate, and having elastic stamens. It is dicecious; 
the male plant much rarer than the female. The T. aspera 
