178 ARALIACE^. 



aborted (male flowers) : cells as many as the petals, 

 one-ovuled : style columnar. Fruit subglobose. 



Species 60 in tropical Africa, Pacific islands and Australia. 



Hcptaplcurum (?) rostratum Bedd., var micrantha 

 C. B. Clarke; F.B.I. ii 729, VII 5. 



Main leaf-stalks 12 to 20 inches : stalks of leaflets 2 



to 3J^ inches ; blades 3 to 8^ inches, oblong or ovate 



elliptic, shortly acuminate, glabrous on both sides but 



light-coloured below not very coriaceous with crinkled 



margin. Panicle up to 9 by 8 inches ; peduncles I inch, 



pedicels J4 to % inch. Flower buds i/io inch. 



Pulneys : in sholas on the downs. Occasionally with palm- 

 like habit. Fyson 1820, 2140 (?). Bonrtts 555, 2642."^ 



The description of the inflorescence and flower is taken from specimens 

 in the Kew herbarium. 



I am not certain about this species. My sheets which have no flowers, 

 were returned to me by both Calcutta and Kew as H. wallichianum 

 C. B. Clarke^ which however I feel sure they are not. The nearest I can 

 find at Kew is a plant collected by Gardner on the Nilgiris and named by 

 Clarke in manuscript as above. In F.B.I. Clarke described the species as "A 

 small branched tree," presumably from observation of a small specimen. 

 Beddome, the founder of the species, described it as a " large tree " 

 (Manual to the Flora Sylvaticaof South India 11 CXXII), as soalso did Wight 

 in his note to his Ic. t. 1013. Both Beddome and Wight give the leaves as 

 very distinctly toothed, a character ignored by Clarke iu F.B.I. I have 

 seen only two specimens of my plant living ; one inside the large shola 

 at Kodaikanal had a tall slender stem and slender vertical branches bearing 

 leaves only at the top ; the other had a tall palm-like stem with crown of 

 leaves, very much in the habit of the Palmyra or Toddy palm (Borassus). 



Hcptapleurum raccmosum Bedd, ; F.B.I, ii 729, VII 

 6. A medium sized well branched tree, easily distin- 

 guished in the shola by its branches of hanging leaves 

 (really leaflets), and its axillary compound spikes of 

 small white flowers. 



Main petiole 8 to 12 inches, leaflets 5 to lO inches, 

 elliptic, acute or acuminate, with undulate margin ; 

 smaller veins not conspicuous when dry. Wight Ic. 

 t. 1015. 



In sholas common. Pulneys : Kodaikanal downs. Nilgiris : 

 Coonoor. Fyson 1066, 2047, 2131.* Bourne 518, 2481, 2641. 



Gen. Dist, Mountains of South India and Ceylon. 



