349 



DESCRIPTIONS OF SOME NEW OR RARE TREES 

 FROM TRAVANCORE. 



By T. F, Bourdillon, f.l.s., Conservator of Forests, Travancore. 



[With 6 Plates.] 

 [Read before the Bombay Natural History Society on 1th December, 1898.] 



GUTTIFER^. 



Garcmia Imberti, sp. nov. Plate I. 



A medium sized tree. Leaves simple, opposite, entire, dark green, 

 elliptic or lanceolate, acuminate, base narrowed, 1-^ to 3 inches long by 

 I to 1^ broad. Petiole -it) inch. Inflorescence dioecious, terminal, 

 the male flowers 3, 6 or 9 together at the ends of brauchlets : the female 

 flowers borne singly or in pairs. Male flowers ^ inch diameter : female 

 flowers i inch, yellow, succulent, and sessile. Calj'x and corolla of both 

 sexes 4-lobed, much imbricated. Stamens of the male flowers in a 

 globose central mass, about 16. Staminodes in the female flowers 

 about 16 in a ring surrounding the ovary. Stigma broad, sessile, 

 convex. Ovary 2-celled, ovules solitary in each cell. Fruit about 1 

 inch long and broad and 2 iwcli thick, consisting of one or two seeds 

 enclosed in a leathery covering. 



An evergreen tree 30 to 40 feet hish with a stem 1 foot in diameter. 

 Bark brown and white, smooth, j inch thick. Juice thin, sweet-scented. 

 Wood yellowish-grey, very hard, but liable to split. Pores medium to 

 small, scanty, evenly distributed. Medullary rays indistinct, annual 

 rings not visible. No heart. Weight 56 lbs. to the cubic foot. Value 

 of P.= 685. 



Fairly common in the evergreen forests of South Travancore above 

 3,000 foet elevation, but very local. 

 Description of Plate I — 



1. Branch of male tree, 



2. Branch of female tree. 



3. Column of stamens in male flower X 4. 



4. Ovary of the female flower X 4. 



5. Fruit — natural size. 



Meliacb^. 



Dysoxylum purpureum, sp. nov. " Kar agil." Plate II. 



A very large tree. Leaves pinnate, about 15 inches long : leaflets 7 

 to 11, subopposite or alternate, narrowly ellliptic, dark green, acuminate, 

 5 to 8 inches long by 1| to 3 broad, glossy, veins 9 to 10 pair, conspic- 

 uous beneath: petiolules ^ inch. Inflorescence in terminal and leaf 



