224 XXXTIII. OLACACE^. 



Leaves thin ; inflorescence axillary ; hairs on the filaments 



usually very long 1. G. axillaris. 



Leaves coriaceous ; inflorescence extra-axillary or leaf-opposed ; 



hairs on the filaments short or 2. G. folymorpha. 



1. Gomphandra axillaris. Wall. Cat. (1828) 3718. A shrub or 

 small tree ; branches terete, glabrous or puberulous. Leaves thin, 

 reaching 6 in. in length, very variable in breadth, from broadly elliptic- 

 oblong to narrow-lanceolate, acuminate, entire, glabrous on both 

 surfaces, paler beneath, base acute, rarely rounded ; petioles \-\ in. 

 long, flowers practically unisexual, rarely polygamous, very small, 

 2-10 (usually 3) together, in puberulous paniculate axillary cymes a 

 little longer than the petioles. Calyx minute, cup- shaped, 4-5-toothed, 

 ciliolate. Petals connate into a tubular corolla ; lobes 4-5, ovate, 

 acuminate, ultimately spreading, the tips inflexed. Stamens exserted, 

 the hairs usually 3 or 4 times as long as the anthers ; pollen-grains 

 acutely trigonous. Ovary small, oblong, 4-5-gonous. Stvle conical ; 

 stigma sessile, 4-5-toothed. Drupes ^| in. long, oblong, blunt at both 

 ends, smooth, white. Seeds large. Fl. B. I. v. 1, p. 586 ; Bedd. For. 

 Man. in Flor. Sylvat. p. Ixi ; Trim. Fl. Ceyl. v. 1, p. 261 ; Talb. Trees, 

 Bomb. p. 45. Platea axillaris, Thw. Enum. PI. Zeyl. p. 44 ; Dalz. & 

 G-ibs. p. 28. — Flowers : Apr.-May. 



KoNKAN : Ghdts, Talhot. S. M. Country : Chorla and Parva Ghats (Belgaum 

 districts), Dalzell <^- Gibson. Kanara : common in the evergreen ibrestsof the Kanara 

 Ghats, Talbot. — Distrib. India (Silhet and W. Peninsula) ; Ceylon. 



2. Gomphandra polymorpha, Wight, III. (1840) p. 103; Wight, 

 Icon. t. 953. A shrub. Leaves coriaceous, otherwise as in the pre- 

 ceding ; petioles rather longer than in G. axillaris. Flowers more 

 numerous than in that species, rather larger, sessile ; ])anic]e leaf- 

 opposed * or extra-axillary, rarely axillary. Corolla more deeply lobed 

 than in G. axillaris. Stamens exserted ; hairs on the filaments about 

 the length of the anther, sometimes absent. Drupes as in G. axillaris. 

 Fl. B. 1. V. 1, p. 586; Woodr. in Journ. Bomb. Nat. v. 11 (1897) 

 p. 270. O. coriacea, Wight, 111. p. 103 ; Bedd. For. Man. in Flor. 

 Sylvat. p. Ixi, t. 9, fig. 4 ; Trim. Fl. Ceyl. v. 1, p. 261.— Flowers : Dec. 



Konkan: Law'., Dalzell I Kanara: Sanlaveri, Woudrow. — Distrib. India (W. 

 Peninsula) ; Ceylon. 



6. APODYTES, E. Meyer. 



Shrubs or trees. Leaves entire. Flowers hermaphrodite, small, 

 in corvmbose cymes or terminal or axillary panicles. Calyx small, 

 5-toothed. Petals 5, hypogynous, free, valvate. Stamens 5, alternate 

 with the petals and slightly coherent with them at the base ; filaments 

 dilated ; anthers 2-lobed. Ovary 1-celled, obliquely gibbous ; ovules 2, 

 pendulous, superposed ; style excentric, more or less incurved ; stigma 

 small. Drupe obliquely ovoid, compressed ; stone crustaceous, 1-celled, 

 1 -seeded. Seed pendulous ; embryo small, in the apex of fleshy albumen ; 

 cotyledons narrow. — Disteib. Tropical Asia, Tropical and Subtropical 

 Africa ; species 9. 



• " The peduncle is at first axillary, but a leaf being most commonly produced upon 

 it at abrjut its middle, its upper part, of course, appears opposite to this new leaf and 

 more strilfingly so when a leaf-bud has been developed in the axil of tiie latter." — 

 Thwaites, Enum. p. 44. 



