588 MONOECIA TETRANDRIA. UrtlCtt, 



six inches long-, by three broad. Petioles rather short, some- 

 what channelleil, bristly. Stipules solitary, interfoliaceous. 

 Female spikes axillary, solitary, compound, expanding, 

 larger than the leaves, their branches alternate, bifarious, and 

 composed of minute alternate branchlets, all round, deep- 

 ly coloured, and bristly. Female flowers numerous, sessile, 

 intermixed among small coloured, bristly bractes. Calyx 

 four-leaved. Corol none. Stamina none. Germ ovate. Style 

 and stigma single, and villous. Seed solitary, compressed. 



13. V . pulcherrima. /?. 



Dioecous, shrubby. Leaves alternate, lanceolate, serrate, 

 three-nerved, veins reticulate ; underneath hoary and pitted. 

 Spikes axillary, paired, compound, glomerate, recurved. 

 male flowers pentandrous. 



A most beautiful shrub, a native of Chittagong ; flowering 

 during the rains; the seed ripens in the cool season. 



Stem as thick as a man's leg, very short, but straight. 

 Branches numerous, spreading in every direction round the 

 stem. Bark of the old woody parts brown, and pretty smooth ; 

 that of the young, coloured shoots angular, and clothed with 

 short appressed hairs. Leaves alternate, rather long-peti- 

 oled, exactly narrow-lanceolar, beautifully serrate, long, ta- 

 pering, acute-pointed, three-nerved, with elevations on the 

 upper surface corresponding with the pits below, which ren- 

 der them rough though lucid, about six inches long, by 

 one broad. Veins diverging and reticulate, hoary underneath, 

 and there parted round the margin, and slightly in the mid- 

 dle of the space between the nerves. Petioles from one to 

 two inches long, a little hairy, coloured and channelled. 

 Stipules axillary, small, scariose. Male calyx in axillary 

 pairs, recurved in opposite directions, compound, glomerate. 

 Calyx five-leaved. Stamhia five. Female spikes on a dif- 

 ferent plant and like the male. Calyx of one, two-lobed, 

 bivalvular-like, ciliate leaflet. Germ oval. Style none. 

 Stamina, a villous tuft. 



