222 



VERBENACEM. 



[ Peemna. 



Brandts For. 

 B. I. iv, 578. 

 Gamble Man. Ind. Tinib. 537 ; Prain 



toothed, or 2-lipped. Corolla small, tube short, throat hairy inside, 

 limb 2-lipped 5-lobed or subequally 4 lobed. Stamens didynamous ; 

 anthers ovate or rounded, the cells parallel or divergent. Ovary 2- 

 or 4-celled, 4-ovuled, style linear, stigma shortly bifid. Fruit a 

 small globose or oblong- obovoid drupe ; endocarp hard, undivided, 

 normally 4- or by abortion 1-3-celled. Seeds 1-4, oblong. — Species 

 40 or more, in the warmer regions of the Old World. 



Leaves usually quite entire and with a cuneate 

 base, corymbs large, calyx £-toothed.— A 

 medium-sized tree . . . . . 1. P. mucronata. 



Leaves more or less toothed when mature ; 

 corymbs small, usually compact : — 



Leaves petioled, sparingly toothed, calyx 4- 



toothed. -A shrub or small tree. . . 2. P. barbata. 



Leaves sessile, coarsely toothed, calyx 5- 

 toothed. — A small almost stemless under- 

 shrub . . . . . . . 3. P. herbacea. 



1. P. mucronata, Poxb. Fl. Jnd. Hi, 80 ; Boyle III. 299 

 Fl. 366 ; Ind. Trees 511. P. latifolia, var. mucronata, F. 

 Watt E. D.i Kanjilal For. Fl 264 ; 

 Beng. PL 831. Vera Balcar, basota. 



A small or medium-sized deciduous tree ; branchlets and young leaves 

 pubescent or velvety. Leaves membranous, drying black, 3-6 in. long 

 broadly ovate, sharply acuminate, usually quite entire, base cuneate ; 

 upper surface glabrous when mature, the lower hairy especially on the 

 midrib, petioles J-f in. long. Corymbs broad, usually terminating short 

 leafy branchlets, rusty-pubescent. Calyx 5-toothed, clothed with 

 spreading hairs. Corolla greenish- white, ^ in. long, pubscent within. 

 Drupe globose, verrucose. 



Dehra Dun and Siwalik range and in the Sub-Himalayan tracts of 

 Eohilkhand and N. Oudh, often found on the outskirts of sal forests, 

 recorded also from Bundelkhand. Flowers April-June. Distrib. 

 Outer Himalayan rarges to Bhutan, up to 3,00 ) ft., also in N". Bengal 

 and on the Khasia Hills. The wood is hard and yields good fuel, and 

 it is sometimes used for lighting fires by friction. The juice of the 

 bark is said to be used medicinally. Gamble (in his Manual p. 537) 

 refers to a moderate-sized thorny tree which he found at Kasumri on 

 the Saharanpur Siwaliks as having thin greyish-white _ smooth bark, 

 and with the leaves drying green (not black), but otherwise resembling 

 P. mucronata. 



2. P. barbata, Wall, Cat. 1768 ; Brand. For. Fl. 367 ; Ind. Trees 511 ; 

 F. B. I. iv, 579 ; Kanjilal For. Fl. 264 ; Gamble Man. Ind. Timb. 535 ; 

 Prain Benq. PI. 831.— Vera. Lamenar, lamnar, bakarchu (Dehra Dun). 



