LAURINE^. 347 



Cinnamomum wightii Meissn.; F.B.I, v 132, VII 15; 

 Wight's Cinnamon. A small, or in the shola, quite large 

 tree, with trunk 2^ feet thick at 4 feet and spread- 

 ing out below. Foliage light green, shiny. Branchlets 

 green, four-angled and grooved, nearly glabrous ; older 

 round, smooth, with a few lenticels. Leaves opposite or 

 alternate, strongly three-nerved, very fragrant when 

 crushed: stalk J^ to ^ inch thick : blade broadly elliptic, 

 ovate or obovate, up to 4 by 3 inches, quite glabrous, 

 entire; upper side shiny, lower dull; with three strong 

 nerves starting from near the base and reaching to near 

 the tip, and much smaller veins in a fine network. 

 Flowers in open panicles in the upper axils. Peduncle 

 of panicle ij^ inches ; lower branches in the axils of 

 thick bracts % inch, upper bracts absent or deciduous. 

 Pedicel about % inch, thickening gradually to the 1/5 

 inch bud, which is thus club-shaped. Sepals three, and 

 petals three, exactly alike, % inch, covered outside and in 

 with a fine close silky pubescence. Outer sepal-stamens 

 with thick anther, opening inwards by four small valves ; 

 facing these a set with anthers opening outwards, and 

 at the base of the short filament a pair of round yellow 

 bodies. Petal-stamens like the outer sepal-stamens ; 

 facing them a set of yellow, sagittate staminodes : 

 all more or less pubescent. Ovary half sunk in the 

 depressed centre, three-angled. Fruit globose on the 

 thickened and enlarged perianth. But in place of this 

 there is often a soft body like a small, brown rough- 

 skinned apple, ^ to ij^ inches by ^ inch, flattened on 

 top, on a broadened stalk with a black central mark, 3/16 

 inch across, and stylar scar of i 16 inch ; this is a gall. 



Nilgiris : in sholas common. In Ootacamund, directly 

 opposite Rosemount. Flower in the early part of the year, fruit 

 December. Pulneys : not seen near Kodaikanal but at lower 

 levels. Fyson 2017, 2633, 30S4. Bourne 248. 



