82 RHAMNACE^. 



yellowish flowers. Leaves alternate, oblong-elliptic 

 nearly circularorobovate, usually cuspidate, finely crenate 

 (the teeth 1/16 inch apart about) from near the base to the 

 apex, in length about 3 inches (one to four), with five or six 

 main pairs of nerves arching from the midrib. Pedicels 

 1/16 inch, with minute bract and bracteoles at the base. 

 Calyx 1/16 inch deep, sepals rounded, imbricate. Petals 

 i/io inch, yellowish-green, surrounding a cup-like disc 

 which is clear of the ovary. Filaments of stamens 

 short ; anthers as long. Ovary three-celled ; style very 

 short. Fruit the size of a pea, on a slender pedicel 

 now lengthened to % inch or more and thickened at the 

 top below the persistent but not enlarged calyx ; opening 

 loculicidally in three roundish shortly pointed valves, 

 which break away from the axis, each with one seed 

 imbedded in a red fleshy aril ; radical pointing down- 

 wards, t. 63. Wight 111. t. 72. 



In sholas, commoner at lower levels. Pulneys: near Kodai- 

 kanal, Bearshola, etc., and below. Nilgiris : Kotagiri and 

 below. Fyson 1077. Bourne 834. 



Gen. List. Hilly districts of India— Mysore, Wynaad, etc., Ceylon, 

 Malay Archipelago and the Phillipines. 



RHAMNACE/E. 



Buckthorn. 



The chief distinguishing characteristic of this family 

 is the arrangement of the stamens, for being equal in 

 number to the petals they stand not between them, as 

 in all other families with isomerous stamens (except that 

 of the Grape-vine) but opposite, that is alternately with 

 the sepals. 



Plants all woody, either shrubs or small trees, never 

 herbs. Leaves nearly always alternate, but sometimes 

 approximate in pairs or are even quite opposite : simple, 

 shortly stalked and finely toothed glabrous on the upper 



