212 BURMA, ITS PEOPLE AXD PRODUCTIOXS. 



to 4, decussately opposed and connate, forming a simple or double closed cup, per- 

 forated only at the apex, the outer cup, if present, Tvingcd, and rarely enlarging with 

 ripening of the fi'uit. Ovary solitary in the axil of tlie bi-actlets, 1 -celled, with 

 a single erect ovule. St/'ffma obliciuely ligulate, discoid, or fringed. Seed solitary, 

 with coriaceous or fleshy testa, and forming a fleshy or diy drupe. Alhiimen fleshy. 

 CoiijJedons 2, large or small, and tooth-like. Radicle superior. Trees or shrubs, often 

 scandent, with jointed branchlets. Leaves either broad and opposite, or reduced to 

 a minute 2-4 toothed sheath at the joints. Flowers forming interrupted or imbricate 

 dense globular or cylindrical catkins, arranged singly, or by twos, or a few on a 

 brachiate branched peduncle. 



Gnetum,' Linnaus. 



Floicers monoecious or dioecious, intermixed with bristle-like, jagged, jointed 

 white or rusty-coloured scales. Catkins eyUndiical, jointed, the females often inter- 

 rupted. Males : Involucre 2-valved. Stamens 1 . Ftlament simple, or forked at the 

 apes. Anthers didymous. Females : Involucre consisting of decussate bractlets connate 

 by pairs and forming an outer and inner urceole, each perforated at the apex. Ovary 

 solitary, erect. Style long, filiform, with a fringed stigma. 



* Fruit narrowed into a stalk. Hair-like scales round the fowers, tawny or rusty. 



G. EDULE, Bl. F.S. Tree forests of Arakan. Pegu. Tenasserim 



Gyut-nweh (Kurz). a^''^ the Andamans. 



Dicccious. Fruit covered w4th silvery scales, the stalk thick and short, leaves 

 of a thinner texture, with a very lax thin net- venation. 



G. FiTNicrLAKE, Bl." Tree forests of Chittagong and Tenasserim. 



Gyut-nweh (Kurz). 



Dioecious. Fruits Cjuite glabrous, the stalk slender, about 2-3 lines long or 

 more. Leaves rigidly coriaceous, the net-venation rather close, elegant and 

 conspicuous. 



** Ovary and fruit sessile and gl.ihrous. 

 G. ifEGLECrrTir, Bl. Arakan and Southern Tenasserim. 



A difficious climber. Leaves rigidly coriaceous, turning black in drying. Hairs 

 round the ovary copious, brown. 



G. GXEMON, L. Southern Tenasserim. 



var. macropliylla. Tree forests of Kamorta. Trice and Track. 



A monoecious shrub. Leaves thick-membranous, remaining yellowish-green on 

 drying. Hairs round the flowers copious, white. The Xicobar race is well marked. 



' There would seem to be a difference of opinion among botanists as to the true structure of this 

 peculiar plant. laudley says of the Order: " Ovary 0. Ovule pointed by a st)'le-like process formed 

 from a third membrane, surrounding the nucleus."— JVi/f <«/</<' Kinffdnin, p. 232. EndUcher, on the 

 otlier hand, Gcmra P/niitarioii, vol. i. p. 262, says of the same Order, G/ietacrte : " Ovarium sessile, 

 apice pervium ; " and under the genus (jnetion, he says (after repeating the previous words), " Ovulum 

 solitariura, e basi ovarii erectum, apice in styliformam attenuate, longe exseito, pertuso." 



To throw a little light on this remarlcable discrepancy, the following observation is added from 

 Lindley [in loco) : " In the genus Gmtum the development of the ovule is so peculiar that botanists at 

 one time, including myself, supposed that the real ovule was in truth an ovary pierced at the summit, 

 for it consists of an exterior shell of considerable thickness and of a green colour ; within which is 

 a thinner envelope through which passes a tvbiilar projertion frimjiil iil t/ie point, and within lies 

 a nucleus, etc." He adds further : " It is to Mr. Griffith that I owe the knowledge of these plants." 



The " tuhular projection fringed at the point'" is doubtless Kurz's " style long erect, tilifomi with 

 A fringed stigma.'*'' If, farther, for "ovary " we read " ovule," he will be in fair accord with Endlicher, 

 though not with Lindley. — C. Parish. 



2 Bentham remarks : " Micjuel after Blume describes the G. fiiniculare as dia?cious. The Hong- 

 kong specimens I liave examined have certainly the female flowers intermixed with the males, as 

 described by Kuxburgh." — Flora Ilungkougensis, p. 336. 



