532 cviii. mthisticace^. 



|-| in. long with a bracteole above the middle. Perianth deeply divided; 

 segments 3, fleshy, concave, densely rufous-woolly outside, glabrous 

 inside. 8taminal-disk stalked, subconcave, glabrous ; anthers about 13, 

 ovate, dehiscing downwards ; filaments short. Female flowees in 

 umbels like the males but fewer-flowered, subsessile or sessile. Perianth 

 cvlindric or narrowly ovoid, slightly gibbous at the base, 3-toothed ; 

 otherwise as in the male. Ovary sessile, ovoid, densely tomentose ; 

 style short, fleshy, glabrous, expanding above into a 2-lobed fleshy 

 stigma, the lobes somewhat corrugated externally. Pruit 1-1| in. long, 

 ellipsoid or subovoid, abruptly and shortly pointed, densely clothed 

 with rusty furfuraceous tomentum, but ultimately subglabrous. Seed 

 narrowly ovoid ; aril thin, uniform, completely coveinng the seed. Fl. 

 B. I. V. 5, p. 110 ; Dalz. & Gibs. p. 4 ; Bedd. For. Man. in Flor. Sylvat. 

 p. clxxvi ; King, in Ann. Eoy. Bot. Gard. Calc. v. 3, part 3 (1891) p. 316, 

 t. 152 ; Talb. Trees, Bomb. ed. 2, p. 283 ; Woodr. in Journ. Bomb. 

 Nat. V. 12 (1899) p. 367. Myristka corticosa, Bedd. Flor. Sylvat. t. 271 

 (not of Lour, nor of Hook. & Thoms.). M. amygdalina, Grab. Cat. 

 p. 175 {not of Wall.). — Flowers : Oct.-Feb. Vern. Rulct-mara. 



KoNKAN : Law ! ; Ghats, Balzcll \ ; evergreen forests, Talbot ; Wari jungles, Balsell\ 

 Deccan : deep ravines at Khandala, Graham. Kanaka : evergreen forests, common, 

 Talbot ; Divimana Ghat (N. Kanara), Woodrow ! — Distrib. India (W. Peninsula), 

 apparently endemic. 



ObdeeCIX. LAURACE^. 



Erect aromatic trees or shrubs usually evergreen [very rarely 

 (Cassytha) leafless parasitic climbers]. Leaves alternate (rarely opposite 

 or deciduous), gland-dotted ; stipules 0. Flowers i*egular, small, herma- 

 phrodite (rarely 1-sexual), in axillary cymes, clusters, racemes or panicles ; 

 bracts deciduous, often involucrate, sometimes 0. Perianth usually 

 inferior ; tube short, sometimes enlarging in fruit ; lobes of limb 

 usually 6 (rarely 4), 2-seriate, the lobes of each series imbricate (rarely 

 subvalvate), all similar, small, herbaceous or petaloid and equal ; or the 

 outer rarely smaller very rarely longer than the inner, occasionally one 

 or more lobes abortive or one or more additional lobes present. Stamens 

 usually a multiple of the perianth-lobes in 2-4 series on the tube ; 

 filaments flattened, the inner or some or all the filaments often 2- 

 glandular at the base ; anthers erect, 2- or 4-celled, the cells dehiscing by 

 upcurved at length deciduous valvular lids. Ovary sessile at the base 

 of the perianth-tube, 1-celled ; ovule solitary, anatropous, pendulous from 

 the apex of the cell. Fruit a dry or fleshy berry, naked or rarely 

 enclosed in or adnate to the perianth-tube ; the stalk often thickened. 

 Seed pendulous ; testa membranous ; albumen ; cotyledons plano- 

 convex, fleshy ; radicle minute, superior. — Uistrib. Genera 34 ; species 

 800-900, chiefly in the warmer regions of America, Asia, Australia, and 

 the Pacific Islands. 



Trees or shrubs. 



Anther-colls of third row (if present) estrorse ; llowers 

 hermaphrodite (rarely polygamous). 

 Anthers 2-cellcd. 



Perianth-tube persistent, enclosing the fruit ... ]. CRvrTocARTA. 

 Perianth quite deciduous 2. Beilsch.mikdia. 



