ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY. 85 
EXPLANATION OF PLATE 35, 
1. Flowering branch of Monocera tuberculata— 4. A detached petal. 
natural stze, 5. The ovary surrounded at the base by a ring of 
2. A flower forcibly opened, showing the filaments glands. 
slightly united at the base, 6 and 7. The same cut vertically and transversely. 
ack and front views of the anthers. 
XXVITI.—DIPTEROCARPES. 
A small but, to Indian Botanists, highly interesting order being nearly confined to 
India and her islands. ‘T'wo species only are noted as of foreign (African) origin. It is prin- 
cipally composed of large, handsome, fine flowering, trees, abounding in resinous juice. ‘The 
leaves are alternate, marked with strong parallel veins, ranning from the midrib to the margin, 
furnished with deciduous, convolute, stipules, terminating the branches in a point: the racemes, 
of flowers are either terminal and panicled, or axillary, solitary, or several from the same leaves 
or from the axils, the flowers often secund. . 
al 
afterwards enlarged, usually two of them much more so then the rest, becoming wing-like, estiva- 
sionally irregularly polyadelphous; when few, adherent to the base of the petals: filaments 
dilated at the base: anthers frequently terminating in bristle, or tipped with a gland-like 
point, 2-celled, opening by terminal fissures. Ovary few (3) celled, with two pendulous ovules 
in each: Style and stigma simple. Fruit coriaceous, |-celled, by abortion, 3-valved or inde- 
hiscent, surrounded by the calyx. Seed solitary, without albumen. Cotyledons twisted or 
crumpled, or unequal, and obliquely incumbent, radicle superior. 
Arrinities. In its affinities this order certainly claims close relationship with the Elaeo- 
carpeae, but is yet perfectly distinct, the imbricate estivation of the calyx, and the spirally con- 
torted one of the corolla, affording ample grounds for their separation, notwithstanding the 
great similarity that exists between the stamens and pistils. The spiral estivation of the 
corolla and crumpled cotyledons associate it with Malvacee, but the usually elongated 2 celled 
anthers, pendulous ovules, and imbricate cestivation of the calyx of Dipterocarpeae, keep them 
sufficiently distinct. With Guétiferae this order agrees in many points, more especially in its 
resinous juice, and exalbuminous seed, but is at once distinguished by its stipules, alternate 
leaves, and the very different ewstivation of its corolla. ‘ The enlarged foliaceous unequa 
segments of the calyx while investing the fruit, point out this family at once” (Lindley) and not 
less certainly, the inflorescence when in flower. 
Grocrarnicat Distrisution. The species of this order though few in number are yet 
spread over every part of India and her islands, from Ceylon and the southern promontory of 
the Peninsula, they extend northwards nearly to the foot of the Himalayas: and from the coast 
of Malabar, eastward, through Burmah, Siam, and Cochin-China, to Java. Roxburgh s cata- 
logue of this order is very full, containing no fewer than 16 species, while Dr. Wallich’s has only 
19, several of these however were unknown to Roxburgh: whence, I presume, we may assume the 
number of Indian ones to amount to about 25 species. Blume has 4 from Java, but whether 
any of these are identical with any of the Indian species, I am not prepared to say, and to a ee 
which, would require a more careful examination than I have the means of giving them Pog ’ 
genus Lophira having two species, both from Sierra Leone, is referred to this order. : no 
are the only species, not of Asiatic origin, belonging to this family. In this “pscceeteten 
(Madras) several species are found, but all natives of the hilly tracts forming the por 
In Silhet, Chittagong, and Pegue, where they abound, they occupy the plains. In Java three, 
of the 4 species described, are natives of mountain forests, the 4th is found on the pate 
hence has been by Blume called Dipterocarpus littoralis. A Hopea and Vateria India equally 
approach the coast in Malabar, but the latter is probably not confined to it, since either it, or one 
