358 baLanophorace^. 



OSYRIS. F.B.1. 133 IV. 



Shrubs with angular branches, alternate leaves and 

 small unisexual flowers. Male flowers with three or four 

 triangular lobes surrounding a thick disc, and four or five 

 stamens. Female flowers with fully inferior ovary, short 

 style, and a three or four-fid stigma. Fruit a globose 

 drupe with globose seed. 



Species 6, in south Europe, Africa, and India (one only). 



Osyris arborea Wall. ; F.B.I. v 232, IV l ; plant 8 

 inches, in dry poor soil, to 5 or 6 feet. Branchlets green' 

 angular. Leaves ovate to elliptic-oblanceolate, mucro- 

 nate, narrowed to the short stalk, yellowish green in 

 colour. Male flowers J^ inch, in axillary peduncled 

 racemes or clusters. Female % inch, solitary on axillary 

 peduncles of 1/5 inch. Fruit a yellow-orange-coloured 

 berry, % inch, showing the small calyx-teeth at the top. 

 Wight Ic. t. 1853. 



In sholas and on the downs, common. Fyson 389, 1120, 

 1861, 3086, 3087. Bourne 114, 2132. 



Gen. Dist. Higher mountains of India and Ceylon. 



BALANOPHORACE/E. 



A family of fleshy root parasites with scales but not 

 leaves, and unisexual flowers, with simple tubular 

 perianth or often no perianth at all. 



Genera 14. Species about 50 in tropical and sub-tropical 

 regions. 



BALANOPHORA. f.b.i. 134 i- 



Glabrous fleshy herbs, yellowish white or brown in 

 colour with tuberous rootstock warty with numerous 

 lenticels. Flowers massed in dense globular or egg- 

 shaped heads or spadixes, on thick stalks, clothed 

 at the base with large scales. Perianth of male flowers 

 with two to six lobes, and a similar number of stamens. 



