evil. piperaceyE. 529 



V. 12 (1899) p. 366. Peperomia portulacoides, Dalz. & Gibs. Bo. Fl. 

 p. 225 (not of Miq.) ; Woodr. iu Journ. Bomb. Nat. 1. c. — Flowers : 

 Julj-Oct. 



SiocAs without locality in Herb. Kew. ! Konkan : on trees, Dahell ! Deccan : 

 Koina Valley below Mahableshwar, Cuoke ! Kanaka : Law ! — Distuib. India (W. 

 Peninsula) ; Ceylon. 



Peperomia x^eUucida, H. B, & K. Nov. Gren, & Sp. v. 1 (1815) p. 64. 

 A succuleut slender much-branched annual herb with weak procumbent 

 glabrous stems 8-20 in. long, broadly ovate acute cordate thinly mem- 

 branous 5-7-nerved opposite leaves, and very slender terminal and 

 leaf-opposed spikes, a native of 8. America, now quite naturalized in the 

 Island of Bombay, where it is abundant, especially near Sewri. 



The plant has also been naturalized in Calcutta and elsewhere in 

 India. Woodr. in Journ. Bomb. Nat. v. 12 (1899) p. 366; Praia, 

 Beng. PI. p. 894. 



Order CVIII. MYRISTICACEiE. 



Evergreen trees often stellately tomentose. Leaves alternate, entire, 

 often pellucido-punctate ; stipules 0. Flowers small, dioecious, regular, 

 fasciculate, umbellate or paniculate ; bracteoles persistent or caducous. 

 Perianth simple, inferior, coriaceous, deciduous ; lobes usually 3, some- 

 times 2 or 4, connate below, valvate in bud. Male flowers : Stamens 

 monadelphous, 3-18 (less often 30-45); anthers usually sessile, ovate 

 or linear, 2-celled, adnate dorsally to a central vertical cylindric or 

 angled sessile or stalked column, free from each other or connate, less 

 often attached by their bases, without or with short filaments, to the 

 edge of a peltate stipitate disk ; dehiscence always extrorse ; rudimentary 

 pistil 0. Female flowers : Staminodes or very rare. Ovary free, 

 sessile at the base of the perianth, 1-celled ; ovule solitary, basal, erect, 

 anatropous ; stigma usually sessile (rarely with a short style), capitate, 

 discoid or lobed. Fruit more or less fleshy or thickly coriaceous, often 

 splitting into 2 (rarely 4) valves. Seed erect, enclosed in a fleshy or 

 membranous entire lobed or laciniate, usually highly colored, often 

 aromatic aril ; testa usually thick ; albumen copious, hard, ruminate ; 

 embryo small, basal ; cotyledons divaricate, flat or crumpled ; radicle 

 short, inferior. — Distrib. Tropical East Asia, Malaya, America, Africa, 

 Australia ; genus 1 ; species about 80. 



1. MYRISTICA, Linn. 



Character of the Order. 



Male flowers in cymes or umbels ; perianth 3-toothecl with a 

 bracteole at the base ; staminal-column elongate ; anthers 

 connate to the column and to each other ; aril laciniate. 

 Male flowers in lax branched cymes at least twice as long 



as the petioles ; fruit elongate-oblong, 2-2^ by \-\\ in.... 1. M. malabarica. 

 Male flowers in condensed many-flowered umbels or cymes, 

 shorter or scarcely longer than the petioles ; fruit sub- 

 globular or ovoid. 



Leaves 6-10 in. long ; fruit subglobular, 2^ in. in diam. 2. M. Beddomei. 



Leaves 12-24 in. long ; fruit ovoid, 3-4 in. long 3. M. magnifica. 



VOL. II. 2 N 



