53. OLACACE&. [1. Olax. 



obsolete, base free or adnate to the disc or ovary, in fruit 

 often enlarged and enclosing the fruit. Petals 4-6 free 

 br connate, valvate in bud, rarely imbricate. St. as many as 

 the petals (often only 3 fertile) and opposite to them or 

 2-3-times as many. Anthers 2-celled with longitudinal 

 dehiscence. Ovary free at the base or enclosed in the torus, 

 1-celled, or 2-5-celled at the base. Placentae usually free 

 axile from which 1 rarely 2 long anatropous ovules depend 

 into each loculns, or ovary 1-celled with 1 pendulous or 

 erect ovule. Style with small stigma. Fruit 1 -seeded 

 usually drupaceous, the placenta often embedded in a cleft of 

 the seed. Seed with a thin testa and copious albumen. 

 Embryo usually small and apical. 



Stamens more than the petals, calyx accrescent . • .1. Olax. 

 Stsmens isomerous with the petals alternating with stamin- 



odes or disc glands. 

 Bracts orbicular caducous. Fls. slender pedicelled . . 2. Opilia. 

 Bracts minute subulate. Fls. sessile . . . .3. Cavxjera. 



1. Olax, L. 



Calyx very small in flower, truncate^ greatly enlarging 

 in fruit and more or less enclosing it. Petals or perianth 

 leaves 5-6. Stamens 9-12, occasionally fewer, usually 3 

 fertile, the rest staminodes. Ovary free, 1-celled or at the 

 base 3-celled. Ovules 3, linear pendulous from the apex of 

 the free central placenta, two soon abortive. Drupe surround- 

 ed by the accrescent fleshy calyx(or hypanthium). Embryo 

 minute. 



(The fertile ovule pushes the central plaoenta to one side, so that 

 the latter appears as an ascending basal funicle in fruit). 



A considerable shrub usually scandent . . . .1. scandem. 



A dwarf undershrub 2. nana. 



1. 0. SCandens, Roxb. Rimil, Rimil-biri, K.\ Hund, S.; 

 Koko aru, Beng. 



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