754 DTOECiA TRiANDRiA. Osyris. 



and moist places among the Circar mountains. Flowering 

 lime the cold season. 



Trunk erect but short, as thick as a man's body. Head 

 laro-e, very ramous. Branchlets twiggy. Leaves alternate, 

 short-petioled, lanceolar, fine-pointed, most minutely serrate, 

 smooth above, whitish below, from two to four inches long. 

 Male. Anient filiform, its peduncle often leaf-bearing, issu- 

 ino- from the dry, smooth, brown involucre-like scales of the 

 bud. Scales small, cup-formed, with a long depending tongue- 

 like lip, giving to the whole the appearance of a slipper. 

 Filaments from six to eight, retrofracted, three or four times 

 longer than the tongue of the perianth. Anthers twin, singly 

 orbicular and grooved. Female. Aments shorter than in 

 the male ; perianth the same. Germ long-pedicelled. Style 

 as long as the capsule. Stigmas two, spreading. Capsule cor- 

 date, opening from the apex, one-celled, four-seeded. Seeds 

 oblong, involved in much fine white cotton; which does not 

 adhere to them, but is inserted with them into the bottom of 

 the capsule. 



2. S. Babylonica. Willd. iv. 671. 



Arboreous. Branchlets pendulous. Leaves linear-lanceo- 

 late, serrate, smooth, glaucous underneath. Male flowers 

 diandrous. 



A native of the middle parts of Asia. In Bengal it blos- 

 soms during the hot season. 



The scales of the ament in the male, form something like a 

 one-lipped hairy cup which is not more than one-fourth the 

 length of the filaments. On each side, without and within, 

 the insertion of the filaments, is an oblong, yellow, smooth 

 gland, rather shorter than the scales. 



DIOECIA TRIANDRIA. 



OSYRIS. Schreb. gen. N. 1497- 

 Male calyx trifid. Corol none. Female calyx as in the 



