6. BtfBTTKEBiA.] 21. STEHCTJLIACEJE. 



long slender tips and-2-fid appendages of the petals. Capsnle 

 softly spiny, J" diam. 



Kooky ground in the forests, and also sometimes in the open. Fl- 

 Aun.-Oct. 



The rootstock is ground and rubbed on swellings of the legs by the 

 Kols. It is a^o nsed in combination with Bael fruit, hesel gum, and 

 Banyan root in cholera and diarrhoea. 'It is given in the female com- 

 plaint known in Sautali as pordhol, ' Camp 



Melochia eorchorifolia, L. Thuiak'. B. An undershrub with 

 oblong-ovate serrate plaited leaves 1-3" long with rounded or cordate 

 base. Fls. small white or pink collected in dense heads. Calyx tube £* 

 eurrounded by 4-5 bracteoles J-|* long. Capsule depressed globose, pubes- 

 cent, 5-grooved. 



Common in waste places, bunds of rice-6elds, etc. Fl. and Fr. r.s. 



The leaves are eaten as a' vegetable and the 6tem yields a fibre. 



"Waltneria indica, L. A perennial hoary-tomentose undershrub 

 9-4 ft., partially dying down in Rome situations and shooting out again 

 in May and June. Leaves velvety-ovate or ovate oblong sub-plicate 

 toothed with 5-nerved base, larger 2|" by ]£", rarely 3 V long. Fls. yellow 

 or pink in axillary sessile or stalked dense capitate cymes with small 

 lanceolate bracts and also running out into Jeafless spikes. Petals ^-i 

 narrow oblong, with a long claw. St. tube with 5 oblong anthers without 

 staminodes. Capsule T V" ovoid villous 2-valved with 1 black seed. 



Especially on recks in open dry jungles, also common in waste land. 

 Fl. r.s. 



Fam.23. EUFHORBIACEjE. 



Trees, shrubs, or herbs, sometimes with milky juice. Leaves 

 alternate (exc. Trewia) simple (exc. Bischofia), usually 

 stipulate. Fls. small or minute, 1-sexnal, rnoncecious or 

 dioecious. In Euphorbia reduced to single pedicelled stamens 

 and naked ovaries surrounded by an involucre. Perianth 0, 

 single or double, usually sepaloid. St. 1-6 or numerous ; 

 often central in the flower, with or without a pistillode. 

 Anthers 2-celled, usually small on a broad connective. Ovary 

 superior of 3 carpels and 3-celled, more rarely of 2 or many 

 carpels and cells (only 1-celled in Antidesma spp.), often 

 3-iobed. Styles or stigmas as many as the carpels, some- 

 times 2-fid. Ovules 1-2 in each cell, pendulous from the 

 inner angle. Fruit usually capsular of three or more 2- 



209 



