50 Flora of the Malayan Peninsula. 



disk crowning the ovary ; free or connate in a ring around the style ; 

 anthers 2-celled, the cells parallel, dehiscing longitudinally and in- 

 trorsely. Ovary 1-2-celled; style simple with a cup-shaped sheath 

 including the stigma ; ovules 1 or many in each cell, erect or ascending, 

 rarely pendulous, inserted on the dissepiment or central. Fruit an 

 indehiscent drupe or a capsule with 2 or 4 valves usually dehiscing 

 irregularly. Seeds albuminous; testa thin crustaceous or thick and 

 hard ; embryo erect in the axis of the fleshy albumen, the radicle 

 inferior. — Disteib. Over 200 species, mostly Australian, a few in New 

 Zealand, Antarctic America, the Pacific Islands, or on the coasts of 

 tropical Asia, Africa, and the West Indies. 



1. Sc^voLA, Linn. 



Herbs, undershrubs or shrubs. Leaves simple, alternate, rarely 

 opposite, entire or toothed. Floiuers axillary, solitary or in dichotomously 

 branched cymes, sessile or pedicellate. Calyx with the tube adnate to 

 the ovary, turbinate, ovoid or globose ; limb short, annular or 5-lobed, 

 sometimes obsolete. Corolla oblique, split to the base behind, lobes 

 sub-equal or the two uppermost shorter, at length digitately patent. 

 Stamens free. Ovary 2-celled, with solitary erect ovules in each cell, 

 or 1-celled with 1-2 erect ovules ; sheath cupular ; stigma truncate or 

 divaricately 2-lobed. Fruit an indehiscent drupe, exocarp thin or fleshy, 

 endocarp hard and woody rarely crustaceous. Seeds solitary ; embryo 

 smooth, cotyledons sometimes broader than the inferior radicle. — 

 DisTBiB. About 60 species, 2 Asiatic, 8-10 of the Pacific Islands and 

 the coasts of Asia, 1 extending to the coasts of Africa and the West 

 Indies, the rest Australian. 



SciEVOLA KoENiGii, Vahl Symb. III. 36 (1794). An evergreen 

 large glabrous shrub with stout stem and branches, soft spongy pith and 

 coarse fibrous wood. Leaves alternate, sessile, obovate-oblong, obtuse 

 at apex, decurrent at base, 3 to 6 in. long, about 2 in. broad, entire 

 or obscurely crenate, more or less fleshy when green, membranous 

 when dry, silky pubescent on both sides or somewhat glabrous on the 

 upper surface, tufted hairy in the axils ; midrib stout, prominent, 

 broad, main-nerves 10-12 pair, slender, arching upwards and joining 

 near the margin, secondary nerves few slender, reticulations many, 

 indistinct. Floivers white, in axillary few-flowered dichotomous 

 pubescent cymes shorter than the leaves ; bracts small, subulate, about 

 •1 in. long; common peduncle '5 to '6 in. long; pedicels -1 to -2 in. long; 

 bracteoles 2, similar to the bracts. Calyx-tube adnate to the ovary, 

 •2 in, long, densely villous ; lobes '2 to "3 in. long, linear-lanceolate or 

 spathulate, ciliate, pubescent, enlai-ged in fruit. Corolla-tuhe -7 to -8 in. 

 260 



