CACTE.K. DATISCACEJ-:. 441 



Ol'UyTlE-E. 



Cidijx-tuhe nut produced bei/ond the ovary. Stem branched, jointed. 



OrrxTiA, Ml tier. 



*"0. Dii.t.KNir, Hani. CultivatcJ in Pionio and tlio drier parts of Burma. 



C'tdus Indicus, lloxb. 



Ka-la-zoung. 



The ' Cactus ' makes an admirable liedse, and is easily propagated by cuttings. 

 Snip off a piece and bury its cud in the ground, and it will generally grow. Some 

 nervous people, however, object to it, for its supposed projterty of harbouiing snakes 

 or vermin, and the authorities in some places wage a war of extermination against 

 this useful plant. A sort of ' Cacticide ' epidemic raged sonic years ago in Madras, 

 and a native medical officer won both honourable mention and a tangible reward by 

 divulging to the authorities his discovery that the ' Coccus,' or Cactus bug, was the 

 natural and a])pointe(l destroyer of the cactus tree, and should be therefore enlisted 

 for its destruction ! The suggestion was rapturously received. The labours of gangs 

 of ' convicts ' employed in grubbing up and burniug the plant were dispensed with, 

 and in lieu thereof a departmental issue of Cactus bugs was at once ordered on the 

 most profuse scale. For months the luckless postal runners groaned beneath the 

 weight of parcels of the cactus plant, with healthy ' cocci ' adhering, pieces of which 

 infected plant were to be distributed in spots where the Cactus was plentiful, that 

 the great battle of Cocem versus Cactus might be fairly fought out. It reads like a 

 scheme disinterred from the archives of the Philosophers of Laputa, but was actually 

 conceived and carried out in Madras, and is too curious an example of intellectual 

 idiosyncracy to be passed over in silence by the conscientious historian ! 



*0. cocHiLi-rNiFERA, Ham. (M.). 



Ka-la-zoung-lct-w a. 



PASSIFLORALES. 

 Flowers usually regular, hermaphrodite or unisexual. Ornri/ usually inferior, 

 syncarpous, 1-celIed, sometimes 3- or more celled by the produced placentas. 

 J'tace/ikts parietal. St/jtcs free or connate. 



Or.lcr DATISCACEJ-:. 



Flowers regular, dioecious, rarely hermaphrodite or polygamous. Males : Cahjx- 

 iuhe very short or hemispherical, lobes 3-9, .short, equal or une(jual. Petals none or H. 

 Stamens A-'i:^, oppo.site the calyx-lobes. Anthers 2-celled. lludinient of ovarv minute 

 or none. Females and hermaphrodites : Vali/x-tule adnate to the ovary, lobes ;j-8. 

 Stamens as in the males, or reduced to staminodes. Ueury 1-celled, open or closed 

 at the summit, placentas parietal, with many anatropous ovules in 2 or more series. 

 Styles as many as jilaceutas, simple or 2-parted, stigniatic inside, or terminated by 

 capitate stigmas. Capsule membranous or coriaceous, dehiscing between the styles, 

 many-seeded. Seeds minute, the testa ])unctatc or striate. Emhrijo cylindrical, 

 imbedded in the a.xis of the scanty albumen, nidicle elongate, next the hilum. 



TiiTitAJtKi.i'.s, R. Brown. 



Flowers dioecious. Petals none. Stamens 4, inserted round a depressed di.>^k, 

 filaments elongate. Anthers didymous. Cali/x-tube almost 4-angular, with 4 short 

 lobes. Staminodes none. Large trees. 



T. xuDiFLOK.i, R. Br. var. a all over Pegu and Tcnasserim. 



T. Grnhamianu, Wight. var a and fi the Andamans. 



var. a genuina. Leaves more or less pubescent beneath, 

 var. fi glabra. Leaves glabrous. 



Wood brown, valueless. 



