280 OLEACE^. 



The leaves are usually larger and more pointed, the flowers in closer 

 fascicles on the branches of the panicle, and the fruit smaller than in the 

 much commoner L. perottetii. 



Ligustrum perottetii DC, including L. neilgherrense 

 Wight ; KB. I. iii 615, IX 4 & 5 ; Privet. A small shrub, 

 growing often in dense tufts 5 feet high and more 

 wide, flowering profusely with panicles of fragrant 

 white flowers, the corolla tubes much longer than the 

 very small calyx, the petals ^ inch long, curled back. 

 Branches smooth with small lenticels. Leaves on the 

 green years shoots only : stalk % inch : blade i to 1/4 

 by M to I inch, quite glabrous, but hardly shiny, ovate, 

 acute at both ends : nerves about six pairs, joining each 

 other inside the margin. Young leaves however some- 

 times 5 by 1% inches. Panicles 2 to 4 inches by i^ to 2 

 inches : lower bracts leaf-like, upper ^ inch : branches 

 with three or four pairs of sessile flowers in the axils of 

 minute bracts. Calyx-tube 1/20 inch; teeth minute. 

 Corolla tube i/io inch, or more, broadening above and 

 in bud club-shaped; lobes 1/8 inch by 1/16 inch, spread- 

 ing. Stamens inserted at the top of the tube; filaments 

 distinct though short ; anthers opening inwards. Fruit 

 obovate-oblong or long egg-shaped, Vz hy Ye inch, 

 seated on the dried calyx, on a J^-inch stalk; usually 

 in pairs, t. 189. Wight Ic. tt. 1243 and 1245; Sp. 

 Nilg. t. 148. 



In the open as thickets and by sholas. Nilgiris : on the 



downs especially near water. A fine clump by the turning to 



Sholur near Sandy Nullah. Fyson 2248, 2394, 2478. Bourne 

 4631. 



Wight (Ic. note on tt. 1243 and 1244) distinguishes L. perottetii, a 

 small bush widely diffused, from L. neilgherrense, a large more local 

 plant. I am unable to separate his specimens and reduce therefore the 

 second species. At Coonoor and other lower levels its place seems to be 

 taken by L. walkeri which has almost rotate flowers. The length of the 

 corolla tube on which the distinction is based is sometimes difficult to 

 determine in herbarium sheets, for the plant often flowers for a day or two 

 only. 



