Aszma.] SalvadoracecE. 121 



acute, reflexed ; stam. exserted; drupe | in., globose, smooth, 

 red. 



Desert and dry regions, especially by the coast, common. Fl. all the 

 year; greenish-white. 



Also in dry districts of S. India, Punjab, Scinde, Arabia, Abyssinia, 

 Syria, N. Africa. 



Apparently first collected here by Gardner, who (in his Report on the 

 Botanic Gardens for 1845-6, p. 3), remarks on the large trees he observed 

 at Elephant Pass, Jaffna. It is very common about Hambantota. 



The small berries and the leaves have the peculiar hot flavour of the 

 Crucifera. The plant is considered to be the 'mustard-tree' of the 

 Scriptures, and is well known now by that name ; it has somewhat the 

 habit of a ' weeping willow.' The fruits are eaten and also given as a 

 medicine to children. 



2. AZZMA, La7n. 



A very rigid spiny bush, 1. opp., entire; fl. small, unisexual, 

 dioecious, axillary; cal. campanulate, segm. 4, unequal; cor, 

 completely divided into 4 pet., imbricate in bud ; male fl. : — 

 stam. 4, alt. with pet., hypogynous; fem. fl. : — ov. 2-celled 

 with I or 2 erect ovules in each cell, stigma large, 2-lobed; 

 drupe globose, endocarp membranous; seeds i or 2, without 

 endosperm. — Sp. 3 or 4; 2 in FL B. Ind. 



A. tetracantba, La7n. Encycl. Meth. i. 343 (1783). Zyanku, 

 Zchanku, T. 



Monetia barlerioides, L'Her., Moon Cat. ii. Thw. Enum. 191. C. P. 

 2216. 



Fl. B. Ind. iii. 620. Wight, 111. t. 152. 



A dense low bush, woody below only, with many opp., 

 divaricate, bluntly quadrangular, green branches, younger ones 

 pubescent; 1. on main stems \-2\ in., on flowering twigs 

 smaller, oval, acute at both ends, sharply mucronate at apex, 

 entire, glabrous, shining, rather thick, stiff, petiole very short, 

 with 2 very sharp divaricate spines in its axil (so that there 

 are 4 at each node) which are often i in. long; fl. sessile, male 

 in small crowded fascicles, female solitary, bracts small, linear, 

 leafy, mucronate; cal. pubescent, segm. obtuse; pet. linear- 

 lanceolate, acute, spreading; ov. glabrous, stigma nearly 

 sessile; drupe \ in., globose, glabrous, white. 



Dry and desert regions, very common. Fl. all the year; greenish- 

 white or yellowish. 



Also in S. India, Madagascar, and S. Africa. 



Moon gives a Sinhalese name, ' Katu-niyada,' for this, and I have also 

 'Wel-dehi' for it. The aspect of the plant when in flower is somewhat 

 Amarantaceous, but the general appearance is rather Citrus-X^k^. 



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