Vah'ca.] Dipterocarpace(2. 129 



the 1. ; sep. lanceolate, very acute, finely tomentose ; pet. 

 thrice as long as sep., pubescent ; fruit (? ripe) less than \ in., 

 ovoid, blunt, densely pubescent, loosely surrounded at base 

 by the enlarged sep., which are nearly \ in., broadly ovate, 

 acute, thick, concave, glabrous, spreading. 



Moist low country; rare. Kalutara; Hewesse, and elsewhere in the 

 Pasdun Korale ; Hiniduma Pattu. Fl. March. 

 Endemic. 

 Wood like V. Roxbu7-ghiana^ but heavier and of darker colour. 



3. V. obscara, Trim. Journ. Bot. xxiii. 203 (1885). Tumpalai, 71 



[Plate XIII.] 



Trim, in Journ. Bot. xxvii. 161. 



A large tree, with rather smooth brown bark, young parts 

 pubescent ; 1. 4-6 in., narrowly lanceolate-oblong, acute or 

 obtuse at base, tapering to obtuse apex, glabrous, lat. veins 

 about 12, not very prominent beneath, paler beneath and 

 pellucid-punctate with transmitted light, petiole | in., slender; 

 fl. rather large, nearly | in. diam., on articulated ped. about as 

 long as Sep., arranged in many-fld., tomentose, erect, axillary 

 panicles much shorter than the 1. ; sep. very small, oval- 

 lanceolate, subacute, tomentose ; pet. 5 or 6 times as long as 

 Sep., oblong, the base concave and stiffened, tomentose in 

 bud ; stam. very small, fil. shortly apiculate ; fr. about i in., 

 broadly ovoid, bluntly pointed, puberulous, glabrescent, sur- 

 rounded at base by the enlarged sep., which are -| in., ovate, 

 acute, stiff and rigid, with the bases deflexed and the tops 

 erect with their points against the base of the fruit, obscurely 

 3-veined, pericarp rather thick, brittle, with 3 faintly marked 

 vertical furrows, cotyledons vertically divided almost to the 

 base into equal halves. 



Dry country; rare. Gregarious, forming forests in the Eastern 

 Province inland from Batticaloa, at Polukanawa, Devilane, &c., and in 

 the Province of Uva at Bintenne ; locally abundant. Fl. June; pinkish- 

 white. 



Endemic. 



Though long known to the timber dealers, this tree was not botanically 

 determined till 1882, when Mr. Vincent, of the Indian Forest Service, 

 collected and sent me specimens of the leaves and fls. 



Wood hard, heavy, brown. Affords an odorous sticky gum-resin. 



Mr. Nevill tells me that the Tamil name is a corruption of the 

 Vedda ' Dummala,' resinous, and that the resin of the tree is used 

 by those people for light. The Sinhalese wood-cutters call the tree 

 ' Dun.' 



In germination the pericarp splits down the 3 vertical furrows, and 

 allows the radicle to escape at the apex. 



K 



