LAURACEAE 209 
5 em long, 1-flowered, with a lanceolate, 2 em long bract below the middle. 
Sepals ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, about 1.3 em long. Petals somewhat 
pubescent, yellow, fragrant, 4 to 5 em long. Carpels numerous, moniliform, 
2 to 5 cm long, stalked, each joint with a single seed. 
I have seen a single specimen of this collected in Manila, but have never 
seen the living plant; introduced here, although apparently indigenous in 
Palawan. India to Malaya. 
6. POLYALTHA Blume 
Erect shrubs or trees. Flowers leaf-opposed, solitary. Sepals 3. Petals 
6, 2-seriate, ovate or elongated, flat. Stamens cuneate; anther-cells ex- 
trorse, remote. Ovaries many; ovules 1 or 2, basal and erect of subbasal 
and ascending. (Greek “many” and “to heal,” from supposed medicinal 
properties of some species.) 
Species about 50, mostly tropical Asia and Malaya, a few in Africa and 
Australia, about 15 in the Philippines. 
1. P. suberosa (Roxb.) Benth. & Hook. f. Tagputagpuan, Duhatduhatan 
(Tag.). - 
A shrub or small tree 2 to 4 m high, the branchlets slightly pubescent. 
Leaves oblong to narrowly obovate-oblong, subacute, blunt or somewhat 
rounded at the apex, 5 to 11 cm long, slightly pubescent beneath, the 
petioles very short. Flowers pale-yellow, solitary, 1 cm long or less, their 
pedicels leaf-opposed, slender, 1 to 2 em long, the sepals and petals slightly 
pubescent. Fruits numerous, ovoid or globose, purple, fleshy, edible, 4 to 
5 mm long. (FI. Filip. pl. 193, Phaeanthus malabaricus.) 
Occasional in thickets etc., fl. all the year; widely distributed in the 
Philippines at low altitudes. India. 
55. LAURACEAE (LAUREL OR BATICULING FAMILY) 
Trees or shrubs with opposite, alternate, or somewhat whorled, ex- 
stipulate leaves, or (Cassytha) leafless, parasitic, herbaceous, vines. Flow- 
ers small, regular, perfect, or uninsexual and monoecious or dioecious, 
axillary, usually paniculate, sometimes spicate. Perianth with a short 
tube, the segments 3 to 8, usually 6, often deciduous. Stamens 6 to 30, 
usually 9, in 3 or more rows, inserted on the perianth-tube; filaments flat- 
tened, sometimes with glands near the base; anthers 2- or 4-celled, opening 
by up-curving lids. Ovary superior, 1-celled, with a solitary ovule pen- 
dulous from the top. Fruit dry or fleshy, often surrounded at the base 
by the persistent perianth-tube. Seed solitary, pendulous, embryo large, 
cotyledons plano-convex, endosperm none. ; 
Genera 47, species more than 1,000, warmer parts of both hemispheres, 
chiefly tropical, about 12 genera and 75 species in the Philippines. 
1. Shrubs or trees. 
2. Perianth persistent in fruit; fruits small. 
3. Leaves and bark very aromatic; leaves mostly 3- or 5-nerved; 
DOWER MOG MVOROer tee... .--.---------ged naa ireeai=o> 1. Cinnamomum 
8. Leaves and bark not or but slightly aromatic; leaves penninerved; 
WM cy PS i IRIE iat RT RI 2. Litsea 
2. Perianth deciduous; fruit large, fleshy edible............................ 3. Persea 
1. Twining, leafless, yellow-brown, parasitic, slender vines........ 4, Cassytha 
111565——14 
