232 XL. celasteacej:. 



6. GYMNOSPORIA, AViglit & Am. 



Shrubs or small trees often spinous. Leaves alternate, exstipulate. 

 Flowers small, greenish or yellow, in axillary solitary or fascicled cymes. 

 Calyx 4-5-fid or 4-5-partite. Petals 4-5, spreading. Stamens 4-5, 

 inserted on the margin of, or beneath the disk ; anthers broadly didy- 

 nioas. Disk broad, lobed or sinuate. Ovary usually with a broad base, 

 confluent with the disk, trigonal or pyramidal, 2-3-celled ; ovules 2 iu 

 each cell ; style short ; stigmas 3. Capsule obovoid or rarely globose, 

 3-gouous, 2-3-celled, 1-4-seeded. Seeds with a perfect or imperfect aril 

 or exarillate ; testa coriaceous ; albumen fleshy ; cotyledons foliaceous. — 

 DiSTiiiB. Dry and hot parts of Asia, Africa, Australia, and Malaya ; less 

 common in the Pacific and Mascarene Islands ; species about 55. 



Ei-anches unarmed. 



Cvmes dioliotonious, 1-2 in. long 1. G. puherula. 



Brandies armed. 



Cymes reduced to subsessile clusters from tubercles on the old 



wood; ripe capsules briglit red 2. G. Bothiana. 



CjMues axillary ; ripe capsules dark purple 3. G. montana. 



1. Gymnosporia puberula, Laws, in Hoolc f. Fl. B. 1. v. 1 



(1S75) p. Gl'J. A shrub ; branches unarmed. Leaves 2-2g by 1-1 1 in., 

 obova'^e, acute or acuminate, serrate-crenate, reticulately veuied, glabrous 

 or nearly so above, liispid on the nerves and veins beneath, base tapering, 

 acute ; petioles g-^ in. long. Flowers in slender, dichotomous cymes 

 1-2 in. long, wdich are axillary or fascicled at the ends of short 

 branches ; pedicels slender ; bracts lanceolate, acute. Calyx deeply 

 divided ; lobes suborbicular. Petals y\j- in, long, elliptic, obtuse. Fruit 

 oboxoid, g in. long. Talb. Trees, Bomb. p. 48. 



KoNKAN : Law I Kanaka : forests near tlie Ainslii Gliafc (N. Kanara), ex Talbot. — 

 DisTniB. Apparently endemic in the Bombay Presidency. 



2. Gymnosporia Rothianaj Laws, in IIool-. f. Fl. B. I. v. 1 



(1S75) p. 620. A large shrub, sometimes a small tree, usually armed 

 with long straight thorns. Leaves coriaceous, 3-4^ by l|-25, broadly 

 obovate-cuneate, rounded or very shortly and bluntly acuminate at the 

 apex, crenulate, dark green, glabrous and polished above, p;de beneath, 

 reticulately veined, the veins not prominent on the underside ; petioles 

 \-f^ in. long, stout. Flowers greenish-white, in short-peduncled or 

 subsessile cymes or fascicles from the tubercles of the older branches. 

 Calyx glabrous, divided nearly to the base ; lobes broadly ovate or 

 triangular, with membranous ciliolate margins. Petals J- in. long, ovate- 

 oblong, obtuse, the margin entire or faintly denticulate. Stanunis 

 sliorter than the petals ; filaments flattened, inserted below the 10-lobed 

 fleshy disk at alternate sinuses. Ovary glabrous ; style stout, short, 

 subcylindric ; stigmas 3, as long as the style, spreading. Capsules 

 3-lobcd, bright red when ripe, the valves turning back in deliiscence 

 shewing their white inner surfaces. Seeds 6, ellipsoid, .] in. long, with 

 a small liasal aril, brownish-orange, smooth, shining. Talb. Trees, Pomb. 

 J). 4.S; AN/'oodr. in Journ. Bomb. Nat. v. 11 (1S!)7) p. 270. Cdastrus 

 Jiotliiana, AVight & Arn. Prodr. p. 150 ; Dalz. & Gibs. p. 47 and p. 318. 

 Cdastrus emanjinata. Grab. Cat. p. 39 {not of lioth). — Flowers: A])r.- 

 June. A'ecn. Ycnidi. 



