SrREBLUS.] URTICACER. 139 
4, imbricate. Stamens 4, inflexed in bud. Pistillode dilated at 
the top. Ferm. flowers. Sepals 4, imbricate, embracing the ovary. 
Ovary straight, retuse ; style central, with very long arms, ovule 
pendulous. Fruit membranous, straight, subglobose, laxly covered 
by the persistent perianth. Sced globose, testa membranous, 
albumen none, embryo globose ; one cotyledon very large, fleshy, 
embracing the smaller one and the ascending radicle.—Species 2, 
Indian and Malayan. 
S. asper, Lour. Fl. Cochinch. ii, 615 ; Brandis For.Fl. 410 ; Ind. 
Trees 615 ; F. B. I. V: 489 ; Watt E. D. ; Kanjilal (ed. 2), 362 ; 
Gamble Man. 632; Frain Beng. Pl. 962 ; Cooke Fl. Bomb. %, 642, 
Trophis aspera, Retz. (exl. syn.) ; Roxb. Fl. Ind. iii, 761.—Vern. 
Siora (Hind.), dahia and kuchna (Saharapur), rusa (Oudh). 
A small usually gnarled evergreen tree attaining 20 ft. in height, but 
very frequently merely a shrub. Bark thick, soft, grey or greenish- 
white or brown, becoming rough when old. Branchlets many, 
rigid and often much interwoven, pubescent. Leaves 2-4 in. long, 
elliptic or rhomboid or obovate, acute or acuminate, margins more or 
less toothed towards the apex, rough on both surfaces with minute 
raised dots especially beneath ; main lateral nerves 4-6 pairs ;* petioles 
about j in. long; stipules obliquely lanceolate. Flowers usually 
dicecious. Mate FLOWERS in shortly stalked globose heads. 
Perianth campanulate. Sepals hairy outside. FEM. FLOWERS 
solitary, on slender axillary usually fasicled pedicels }in. long. Fruit 
a l-seeded subglobose berry about the size of a pea, yellow when 
ripe. 
Common along river-banks and in hedges near villages, especially in 
Bundelkhand and in the Sub-Himalayan tracts of Rohilkhand and 
N. Oudh. Flowers Jan-. March, fruiting May-July. The new leaves 
appear in March. Disrrre. Along the base of the W. Himalaya 
eastwards to Bengal and through C. W. and S. India to Ceylon ; 
extending to Burma, Siam and China. The wood of this tree resem- 
bles that of a fig. It is useful, however, by reason of its toughness 
and elasticity. The rough leaves are used for polishing wood and 
ivory. The tree is much lopped for fodder, and the fruit is eaten. 
15. CUDRANIA, Trecul; Fl. Brit. Ind. v, 538. 
Shrubs, often scandent, or small trees, usually spinous. Leaves 
alternate, entire, penninerved ; stipules lateral, small. Flowers 
