284 PecialiaceCE. \Pedalium. 



base, narrowly caudate, very acute, entire, glabrous, rather 

 stiff, with copious, pellucid finely reticulate venation ; fl. on 

 slender glabrous articulated ped., in lax drooping, stalked, 

 terminal panicles with articulated branches, bracts minute, 

 soon falling ; cal. f in., glabrous, purple, cor. nearly i in., 

 limb \ in. diam., upper part woolly within and with tufts of 

 woolly hair below insertion of stam., lobes rounded ; style 

 curved, included; capsule 1-2 ft., by f in. wide, glabrous, 

 usually dotted with white, valves thin, flexible, septum spongy, 

 almost filling cavity; seeds about \\ in., readily splitting 

 along the transverse furrow. 



Moist low country, chiefly on the coast, but extending up to 2000 ft.; 

 common. Fl. May, June; pinkish-yellow or cream-coloured, veined and 

 stained with reddish-purple. 



Also in India and Burma. 



Wood rather heavy, hard, yellowish-grey, durable. The bark is used 

 as a substitute for the Palol bark of the bazaars (see below). 



5. suaveoletts, DC, is a planted tree, especially about Buddhist 

 temples, and is called 'Palol' or 'Ela-palol.' It has rather handsome 

 dull purple sweet-scented flowers, very copiously produced in May and 

 June. It is C. P. i960. A nativeof India, the bark of which is a favourite 

 tonic medicine. 



XCVIL— PEDALIACE^. 



Annual herbs, 1. opp. or alt., fl. bisexual, irregular, rather 

 large, axillary; cal. free, segm. 5 ; cor. tubular-ventricose, 

 obscurely two-lipped, lobes 5, unequal, imbricate ; stam. 4, 

 didynamous ; ov. superior, 2- (or falsely 4-) celled, ovules 2 or 

 many, superposed, stigmas 2 ; fruit a 2-valved capsule or in- 

 dehiscent ; seeds without wings, no endosperm. 



Fruit indehiscent, spiny . . . .1. Pedalium. 

 Fruit a 2-valved capsule, unarmed . .2. Sesamum. 



I. PEDAZilUBI, L. 



Annual herb., 1. opp., fl. rather large, solitary ; cal. small, 

 segm. 5 ; cor.-tubc rather slender, limb obscurely 2-lipped, 5- 

 lobed, lowest lobe the largest ; stam. 4, didynamous, anth. 

 not connate ; ov. 2-cclled with 2 superposed ovules in each 

 cell, stigmas 2 ; fruit hard, indehiscent, narrowed below, 

 ovoid above, with a sharp point and 4 horizontal sharp spines 

 from the sides ; seeds pendulous. — Monotypic. 



