MYRSiNACE^. 26/ 



nerves about eight to ten on each side nearly straight. 

 Racemes slender, 2 to 4 inches, sometimes branched : 

 pedicels ^ inch. Sepals not ciliate. Corolla when open 

 J^ inch. Fruit ^ inch globose, with calyx-teeth show- 

 ing near the top, and surmounted by the small style. 

 Seeds many on a round placenta- which projects into 

 the hollow of the fruit from one side. Wight Ic. t. 1206 ; 

 Sp. Nilg. 1. 134. 



Nilgiris : very common in the shola at Kotagiri. Coonoor : 

 not at higher levels. Also Shevaroys at Yercaud. Fyso7i 1726, 

 41. Bourne Coonoor, etc. 



This was included by C. B. Clarke in F.B.I, under M. indica Wall, as a 

 variety. I have not seen Roxburgh's plant (Wallich's type) but it was a 

 native of Chittagong (Roxb Fl. Ind Ed. Carey and Wallich ii 230) and 

 examples from the same district have sinuate almost entire, not sharply 

 serrate leaves, much shorter and more divided axillary panicles of flowers 

 and ciliate sepals. Whether these differences are of specific or varietal rank 

 must largely be a matter of opinion. 



MYRSINE. 



Shrubs and trees with rather thick branchlets on 



which the flowers are closely set in small fascicles, and 



small one-seeded fruits, with the endosperm more or less 



indented by the seed-coat. 



Species about 100, natives mostly of the tropics of Asia, 

 Africa and America, a few in extra-tropical iVfrica, the Atlantic 

 islands and New Zealand. 



C. Mez in a monograph of the family {Das Pflazenreich iv 236) makes 

 143 species, nearly all of which he puts in in a new genus Rapanea leaving 

 only 4 to MYRSINE proper and 3 between two other genera, rapanea is 

 separated from myrsink because of the absence of any style between the 

 ovary and the large stigma, and the much less ruminate endosperm. 



Myrsinc wightiana Wall, Cat. 2300! (Rapanea of 

 Mez.) ; F.B.L as M. capitellata var lanceolata, iii 512; II 

 3.* A tree with erect gland-streaked leaves, mostly at 

 the ends of the branchlets and small flowers thickly set 

 lower down on them. 



Tree with ascending branches, occasionally very 

 large ; when small pyramidal or sharply pointed in outline. 



