Cudrania.'] UrticacecS. 97 



surface of an axillary peduncled receptacle, surrounded by 

 confluent imbricating bracts, fern, minute, solitary in a 

 pyriform involucre of many confluent bracts ; male fl. : — 

 sep. 3-4, narrowly spathulate, imbricate ; stam, 3-8, fil. erect; 

 pistillode o ; fern. fl. : — perianth o ; ov. adnate to the invo- 

 lucre; style arms 2, subulate, recurved, ovule pendulous ; 

 ft. fleshy, pericarp confluent with the receptacle, testa hard, 

 endosperm o, embryo subglobose, fleshy, radicle small, 

 superior. — Sp. 5-6 or i ; i in Fl. B. Ind. 



A. toxicaria, Leschen. in Ann. Mtes. Par. xvi. 478 (1810). Riti^ S. 

 Netavil, T. 



A. zeylatiica, Seem, in Bonplandia, x. 4. A. innoxia., BL, Thw. Enum. 

 263. A. saccidora., Dalz. ; Wight, Ic. vi. 7. C. P. 2231. 



Fl. B. Ind. V. 538. Wight, Ic. t. 1958. Bedd. Fl. Sylv. t. 307. 



A tall tree, 120 ft., trunk straight, with buttressed 

 base ; bark grey, pustular ; 1. 4-8 in., oblong or oval-oblong, 

 acuminate, mucronate, cuspidate or subcaudate, entire or 

 serrulate, glossy above, glabrous or tomentose beneath, base 

 rounded or cordate, young hirsute, veins 8-10 pairs ; petiole 

 very short ; recepts. 3-4-nate, orbicular, | in. diam., velvety, 

 at length convex ; fem. recept. axillary, subsessile, ovoid, -| in., 

 velvety ; fr, globose or pyriform, |-f in. diam., narrowed into 

 a short ped., red-brown, i -seeded. 



Low country to 2000 ft., rather common. Heneratgoda ; Kurunegala ; 

 Kaduganawa; Badulla. Fl. August, September. Fr. red-purple. 



Also in S.W. India, Burma, Malaya. 



First collected by Gardner at Kurunegala in 1847. His specimens 

 are labelled M. acuminata, Gardn.', a name never published (see his 

 'Remarks on Flora of Ceylon' (1848), p. 7). 



There are no sufficient botanical characters to separate this from the 

 Upas tree of Java, the original A. toxicafia; but the milky juice here 

 seems far less poisonous, and does not appear to be even used as a 

 medicine. The two trees grow side by side in Peradeniya Gardens, and 

 the only differences in the foliage of the Ceylon plant are that its leaves 

 are somewhat narrower, less acute, less cordate at the base, and with 

 more numerous lateral veins. 



The very tough inner bark readily separates from the wood, and, 

 removed entire from large stems, affords excellent ready-made sacks. 

 The fig-like fruits are reddish-purple when ripe, and the flesh is eaten 

 by bats and birds ; the seed is bitter. The lateral branches disarticulate 

 naturally, leaving a clean scar or stem. — Trimen. 



7. CUDRANIA, Tree. 



Erect or scandent, small, often spinous trees or shrubs; 



1. alt,, quite entire, penniveined, stip. small ; fl. dioecious, in 



small naked globose heads, bracteolate ; male fl.: — sep. 3-5, 



imbricate, adnate to 2-4 bracts, stam. 4, fil. erect; pistillode 



PART IV. H 



