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ae 
 Ficus.] URTICACES. te 149 
spreading, pubescent, sometimes 3-fid. when young. MALE FLOWERS 
few, near the mouth of the receptacle. Sepals 4, lanceolate. Stamen 
1, Gat FLowERs: Sep. 4, shorter than the smooth ovary ; style 
short. FERTILE FLOWERS : Sep. as in the gall flowers ; style elongate. 
Achenes tuberculate. 
Forests of Bundelkhand. The fruit ripens during the hot season. 
Disrris. : Southwards from Behar and Chota Nagpur through Central 
W. and S. India, also in the drier tracts of Ceylon. It is very 
destructive to buildings if allowed to encroach as an epiphyte. 
The fruit is much eaten by birds. 
4 F.retusa, Linn. Maniiss. 129; Brandis For. Fl. 417 ; Ind. 
Trees 603 ; King Sp. Ficus 50, t. 61 and t. 84; F. B. I. V., 511; 
Watt E£. D. ; Gamble Man. 643 ; Prain Beng. Pl. 980 ; Cooke Fl. 
Bomb. ti, 647.—Vern Nandan. . 
A large or moderate-sized evergreen glabrous tree, often epiphytic ; 
aerial roots few ; bark dark-grey, smooth. Leaves coriaceous, shortly 
stalked, 2-3 in. long and nearly as broad, elliptic ovate or obovate, 
rounded or shortly and bluntly acuminate at the apex, polished and 
shining; base narrowed into the petiole, 3-nerved; main lateral 
nerves 5-6 pairs above.the basal ones, not more prominent than the 
secondary ones, reticulately veined between ; petiole }-} in., stipules 
lanceolate, 2 in. Receptacles about } in. in diam., sessile in pairs, 
axillary or from the scars of fallen leaves, depressed-globose, smooth, 
yellow or reddish when ripe ; basal bracts 3, spreading broadly ovate, 
blunt, persistent. MALE FLOWERS many, scattered, sessile or shortly 
stalked. Sepals 3, subspathulate. Stamen 1, filament as long as the 
cordate apiculate anther. GALL FLOWERS sessile or nearly so. Sepals 
3, oblong or broadly spathulate. Style short. FERTILE FLOWERS 
usually sessile. Sepals 3, much shorter than those of the gall flowers. 
Style short ; stigma cylindric or clavate. Achenes ovoid or obovoid 
Bundelkhand (Edgeworth, Duthie), often on rocks. Disrrrs.: Chota 
Nagpur and Behar and from Cent. W. and 8. India to Ceylon ; also 
in the Sundribuns and in the Andaman and Malay Islands, extend- 
ing to Australia. This tree, when cultivated, affords an abundance 
of cool shade and might be used more generally than it now is as a 
roadside tree and in the formation of groves. Gamble states that 
the wood in moderately hard and might be used for making furniture. 
The small figs, are much eaten by pigeons. 
Var. nitida, King Sp. Ficus 51, tt. 62 and 84 fig. P.; F. B. I. V., 511; 
Kanjilal For. Fl. (ed. 2), 370; Prain Beng. Pl. 980. F. nitida, Thunb: 
