LXXV. PRIMCLACE.£. 81 



acute. Corolla white, deciduous, shorter tlian the calyx ; tube urceolate; 

 lobes 4-5, ovate-lanceolate. Filaments flattened, glabrous. Capsule 

 membranous, nearly equalling the calyx, operculately dividing about the 

 middle. Seeds numerous, trigonous, black when fully ripe. Fl. B. I. 

 V. 3, p. 506 ; Wight, Icon. t. 2000 ; Woodr. in Journ. Bomb. jN'at. v. 

 12 (1898) p. 162.— Flowers : Aug.-Sept. 



Rare. Deccan : Robe, near Poona, Bhiia I ; Lingmala, Maluibleshwar, Woodrow \ 

 — Disi RIB. India (Central and Western Himalaya, Central India, W. Peninsula) ; 

 Tropical America, Australia. 



Order LXXVI. MYRSINACE^. 



Trees or shrubs sometimes climbing. Leaves alternate, simple, usually 

 gland-dotted ; stipules 0. Flowers small, often with resinous glands, 

 regular, hermaphrodite or poly gamo- dioecious. Calyx free (in Mcvsa 

 more or less adnate to the ovary), 4-6 (usually 5) -fid or -partite ; 

 segments usually ciliate and persistent. Corolla usually gamopetalous, 

 rotate (rarely campanulate or tubular) ; segments or petals 4-0 (very 

 rarely 3 or 7), usually contorted or imbricate (rarely valvate). Stamens 

 opposite the corolla-lobes and isomerous with them ; filaments short 

 (rarely elongate), free or more or less connate with one another ; 

 anthers attached at the back near the base, dehiscing by longitudinal 

 slits (very rarely by pores). Ovary globose or ovoid, superior (in Mcesa 

 ^-inferior), 1-celled, usually attenuated into the style ; ovules few or 

 many, on a free central usually globose placenta ; style simple ; stigma 

 acute, truncate or capitate (rarely shortly lobed). Fruit usually pisi- 

 form, 1- or few- or rarely many-seeded, indehiscent (except in JEgiceras), 

 often sub-baccate and colored, 1-many-seeded. Seeds usually globose, 

 excavated at the base ; albumen fleshy or horny, smooth or ruminate 

 (0 in jEglceras); embryo transverse. — Distrib. Throughout the warmer 

 regions of both hemispheres, almost all tropical ; genera 32 ; species 

 928 according to Mez, in Engl. Pflanzenreich, v. 4 (1902). 



Fruit globose; seeds albuminous. 



Calyx thickened, enclo.*ing the fruit; seeds numerous 1. M.E8.i. 



Oalyx not thickened, free ; seed solitary (rarely 2 in Embclia). 

 Corolla-lobes imbricate. 



Flowers in axillary fascicles 2. Myrsink. 



Flowers in racemes or panicles 3. Embelia. 



Corolla-lobes twisted 4. Ardisia. 



Fruit cylindric ; seeds exalbiimiuous 5. jEgiceeas. 



1. M.ffiSA, Forsk. 



Glabrous or pubescent shrubs sometimes more or less sarmentose ; 

 branches terete. Leaves entire, toothed, or serrate, usually pellucid- 

 dotted. Inflorescence sometimes monstrous, the flowers replaced by 

 densely imbricating bracteoles ; flowers 2-bracteolate beneath the calyx, 

 small, white, hermaphrodite or sometimes 1-sexual, in axillary racemes 

 or panicles, pedicellate; pedicels bracteate at the base. Calyx-tube 

 adnate to the ovary; lobes 5, persistent, imbricate. Corolla shortly 

 campanulate ; lobes 5, imbricate, rounded, with inflexed tips. Stamens 5, 

 inserted on the corolla-tube ; filaments short. Ovary partially adnate 

 to the calyx ; ovules numerous on a subglobose placenta; style short; 



VOL. II. G 



