MYRTACE/E. I47 



SERPICULA. F.B.I. 56 II. 



Flowers unisexual and monoecious, male flowers on 



long slender stalks of four acute sepals, four petals, 



eight stamens with very short filaments and long basifixed 



extrorse anthers, and four rudimentary stigmas but no 



ovary. Female flowers with no petals nor stamens, but 



a one-celled ovary with four stigmas and four seeds : fruit 



minute one-seeded, eight-ribbed or smooth. 



Species under five in the marshes of Asia, Africa and 

 America. 



Scrpicula indica Thwaites ; F.B.I, ii 432, II 2 ; small 



marsh herbs, with opposite leaves and small unisexual 



inconspicuous flowers. Stem single or branched, very 



variable in length and robustness, from 2 to 14 inches, 



glabrous or nearly so. Leaves from % by 1/16 inch, to 



^ by J4 inch, oblanceolate, entire cuneate at the base, 



with four wide spreading acute teeth and a middle ovate 



one. Ovary flowers shortly stalked, 1/30 by 1/40 inch 



elliptic, the calyx-tube surmounted by four small lobes. 



Male flowers on hair-like pedicels of /^ to 54 inch in 



the same axils as the female. Sepals 1/50 inch. Petals 



i/io inch, boat-shaped, soon falling. Anthers as long. 



Nut rugose, 1/30 inch, with about eight ridges in the 



lower half. Wight Ic. t. lOOl. 



On the Ootacamund and Kodaikanal downs in water. Quite 

 common. Not on the ghats to the north, nor on the Himalayas. 



Gen. Dist. Southern India. Bourne 698, 925. 



In the F.B.I, the leaves are given as ciliate, and ihe fruit as not ridged. 

 The more robust specimens would appear to approach S. veronicaefolia 

 Bory\ of Java, very closely. 



MYRTACE/E. 



The chief characteristics of this family are the 

 opposite gland-dotted leaves, inferior ovary, roundish 

 quickly falling petals, and long stamens curled inwards 

 in bud. Most are trees or shrubs, herbs being rare, and 



lO-A 



