1 20 CeratophyllaceCE. [Ceratophylluin. 



Casiiarina equisetifolia, Forst., Knsa^ S. Cha7'ukkit, T. This is a 

 native of Burma, Malaya, Australia, and Pacific Is., but does not occur 

 wild in India or Ceylon. It, however, is a very commonly planted tree in 

 all parts of Ceylon, and affords a very hard, fibrous, strong, brownish-red 

 timber. 



There are no representatives of the Orders Cupuliferce or Salicinea: 

 in Ceylon. No fewer than 72 species of Oaks {(2ucrcics and Castanopsis) 

 are included in the Fl. B. Ind., of which not one occurs in the Deccan 

 Peninsula, though many do in the Malayan. 



CXXIL— CERATOPHYLLACEyE. 



Submerged fresh-water herbs; stem v^ery slender, much 

 branched, fragile; 1. whorled, dichotomously cleft into filiform 

 denticulate segments; fl. moncecious, axillary, minute, soli- 

 tary; male fl. : — sep. 6-12, narrow, subvalvate in bud, 2-fid; 

 stam. 10-20, fil. very short, anth. oblong, 2-celled, valves 

 opening outward, connective produced into 2 cusps ; fem. fl. : 

 — sep. of male; ov. sessile, ovoid, i -celled, style subulate, 

 sometimes with a short basal arm, ovule solitary, pendulous, 

 orthotropous ; fr. a small coriaceous oval or ovoid compressed 

 achene, tipped by a long or short style, and with i or 2 

 recurved spines on each side above the base ; seed without 

 endosperm, cotyledons thick, radicle veiy short, inferior, 

 plumule many-leaved. 



An Order of doubtful affinity ; peculiar in Natal, with the many-leaved 

 plumule of Nelumbiuin. The numerous described species may prove to 

 be all forms of one or two widely distributed water-plants. 



cz:ratophyz.z.um, l. 



For characters, see Order: — Sp. 2; i in Fl. B. Ind. 



C. verticillatum, Roxb. Fl. Ind. iii. 624 (1S32). 



Thw. Enum. 290. C. P. 231 1. 



Fl. B. Ind. V. 639. Wight, Ic. t. 1948, f. 3, 1. c. {tuberculatum). 



Whole plant 8in,-3ft. long, forming an excessively branched 

 tangle of slender branches and leaves that collapse in a tassel 

 when taken out of the water ; 1. about i in. long, segments 

 spreading in water, variable in thickness and amount of 

 toothing ; fl. about \ in. long, male with 2-fid. sep. shorter than 

 the bicuspidate anthers; fr, oval, not winged, compressed, free, 

 muriculate, tipped with the long spiniform style, and with a 

 dcflexcd rigid spine as long as the style from each margin 

 towards the base. 



