82 LXXVI. 1IYRSIN.ACE.B. 



stigma small, capitate or shortly 3-5-lobed. Berry globose, oF the size 

 of a pepper-corn, usually apiculate by the perslsteut style, enclosed in 

 the thickened persistent talyx, many-seeded. Seeds numerous, albu- 

 minous, angular. — DisxRiB. Throughout the Tropics except America; 

 species 102 (according to Mez, in Engl. PtlaiizeurL-ich, v. 4). 



1. Msesa indica, Wall, in Bo.vb. Fl. Ind. ed. Carey, v. 2 (1824) 

 p. 230 hi note. A large much-branched shrub ; twigs slender, glabrous, 

 usually covered with numerous small lenticels. Leaves 3-6 by 1^-3 in., 

 ovate-oblong or elliptic-lanceolate, acute or acuminate, regularly or 

 irregularly serrate-dentate, thin, glabrous and shining above, glabrous 

 or with a few scattered hairs on the nerves beneath, base usually acute ; 

 main nerves 8-10 pairs, conspicuous beneath ; petiole -i— 1 in. long, 

 glabrous or slightly hairy. Flowers very small, faintly fragrant, 

 numerous, in compound, panicled, usually glabrous racemes ; pedicels 

 filiform, TTy— yV in. long; bract 1 below the pedicel, narrowly ovate, 

 acute, glabrous ; bracteoles 2, about -^-^ in. long, narrowly ovate, acute, 

 not ciliate. Calyx yL in. long, divided rather more than g-way down ; 

 lobes rotund-ovate, obtuse, not or sometimes faintly ciliate, glabrous on 

 the back, marked with dark lines ; tube enlarged in fruit, enclosing the 

 berry, rugose and obscurely ribbed outside. Corolla white, -^ in. long, 

 marked with colored lines, divided to the middle ; lobes rotund-ovate, 

 somewhat abruptly and shortly contracted at the very base and with 

 slightly crenulate margins, spreading. Berry globose, creamy-white, 

 about g in. in diam., covered almost to the apex by the persistent calyx 

 and tipped with the short style. Seeds black. Fl. B. I. v. 3, p. 509 ; 

 Grab. Cat. p. 105; Dak. & Gibs. p. 13G; Bedd. For. Man. in Flor. 

 Svlvat. p. cxxxvii, t. 18, fig. 4 ; Trim. Fl. Cevl. v. 3, p. 67 ; Talb. Trees, 

 Bomb. ed. 2, p. 202 ; Woodr. in Journ. Bomb. Nat. v. 12 (1898) p. 103 ; 

 Mez, in Engl. Pflanzenreich, v. 4 (1902) p. 29; AVatt, Diet. Econ. Prod. 

 V. 5, p. 106. — Flowers : Nov.-Jan. Veux. Atki. 



Common along the Ghats, Dalzell ff" Gibson. Deccan : i\rababloshwar bills, Law'., 

 Cooke I; bills about Piir, Graham; Koriiida near Khai\(la,\a, Arlmc/cle ex Graham. 

 S. M. CoDNTitY: Parva Ghat, liifckie, 1827 \ Kanaka: abundant in the evergreen 

 forests of the Sirsi and Siddapur talukas of N. Kauara, Talbot. — Distuib. Throughout 

 India ; Malaya, Africa. 



Graliam and Dal/.ell botli state that tlie fruit is used to poison fish, and Talbot says 

 that the leaves are used in curries iu N. Kanara. 



Yak. dubia. Tips of the young branches, main nerves of the leases 

 beneath, petioles, rhachis of the inflorescence, bracts and bracteoles 

 clothed (more or less densely) with usually rust-colored hairs; calyx- 

 lob(>s ciliate and, as well as the corolla-lobes, strongly lineate. Ilcesa 

 duUa (sp.), Wall, in lioxb. Fl. Ind. ed. Carey, v. 2 (1824) p. 235; 

 C. B. Clarke, in Hook. f. Fl. B. I. v. 3, p. 510 ; Grab. Cat. p. 105; 

 Talb. Trees, Bomb. ed. 2, p. 202; Mez. in Engl. Pflanzenreich, v. 4 

 (1 902) p. 39. M. indica, var., Bedd. For. Mnu. in Flor. Svlvat. t. 18, fig. 4, 

 n. 1 onli/. 



Except the hairiness I can find no np]-»rcciable difference between this 

 and il/. indica, and it seems doubtful it it deserves even the rank of u 

 variety. The difference in the length of the filaments replied on by Mez 

 (Engl. Pflanzenreich, v. 4, ]). 20) as a distinctive cliaracter is not at all a 

 constant one. I have found the antiiers in both plants sessile as \\c\\ as 



