sized trees, often with buttresses, usually with a dense 
crown; branchlets often sympodial. The leaves are sim- 
ple, arranged spirally along the branchlets, but mostly 
crowded near the apex, and generally with long petioles 
with a rather distinct swelling at both ends; the leaf 
venation is penninerved, the margin of the leaves entire 
or slightly sinuous, sometimes crenate-serrulate. At the 
base of the petiole, where it merges into the branchlet, 
two intrapetiolar stipules are present, but they are cadu- 
cous and observable only when young. The inflorescences 
are long, slender, more or less drooping, unbranched 
spikes or racemes, borne in groups along the branches or 
on the trunk, in some species in the leaf axils. Staminate 
and pistillate flowers are borne in separate inflorescences; 
the male and female inflorescences are found usually on 
different trees. The flowers are very small, without pet- 
als, but with usually yellowish green sepals. The stami- 
nate flowers, much smaller and more numerous than the 
female, have four to five (rarely up to eight), very small, 
and mostly unequal sepals, arranged imbricately in the 
buds. A glandular disk is present. The glands are very 
small, almost obsolete, and arranged interstaminally. 
The stamens are four to eight in number, with short and 
free filaments, terminating in four-loculed anthers that 
dehisce longitudinally. ‘The rudimentary ovary, usually 
shield-shaped, may be seen distinctly at the centre of the 
flower. The female flowers bear four to six caducous 
sepals, generally longer than the ovary and hairy on both 
the outer and inner surfaces. Unlike the staminate flow- 
er, the pistillate has no disk. The ovary usually has two 
to three locules, very seldom four to five, with a very 
short s:yle, terminated by bifid, plumose or papillose 
stigmas. Hach ovary cell contains two to three, rarely 
four to five ovules. The fruit is a berry or a capsule 
(berry here is a loose term, given to the species with 
[ 67 | 
