?. SALVADORACE^. 



FAM. 88. SALYADORACE^. 



Trees or shrubs, often spinose or with olive-grey foliage and oppo- 

 site entire leaves and minute stipules. Fls. small clustered or 

 panicled, dioecious or polygamo-dioecious. Calyx inferior campanu- 

 late or ovoid, 3-5-fid. Corolla gamo- or poly-petalous, 4-merous, 

 petals imbricate. Stamens 4, hypogynous or on the cor.-tube, alt. 

 with the petals, filaments sometimes connate. Ovary free, 1-2- or 

 imperfectly 4-celled, style short, stigma entire or 2-fid. Ovules 1-2 

 in each cell, erect from the base, anatropous. Fruit a berry or drupe, 

 mostly 1-seeded. Seed erect, globose, exalbuminous. 



Corolla g-amopetalous. Ovary 1-celled, 1-ovuled . . . .1. Salvadora. 



Corolla polypetalous. Ovary 2- or pseudo-4-celled . • . .2. Azima. 



1. SALYADORA, L. 



Trees or shrubs. L. often fleshy or coriaceous. Fls. 2-1-sexual, 

 spicate or racemose on the branches of axillary and terminal panicles 

 with minute bracts. Calyx-lobes 4. Cor. campanulate, lobes 4 and 

 tube sometimes with 4 small teeth between the bases of the filaments 

 (staminodes ?). Stamens 4 on the tube. Ovary 1-celled, style 0, 

 stigma truncate. Ovule 1. Fruit a globose drupe seated on the 

 slightly enlarged calyx, endocarp crustaceous (but see note under 

 *S'. persica). 



1. S. persica, L. Jhak, Vevn. {fide Prain) ; Pilugach, Or. 



A large straggling shrub or small crooked tree Avith spreading and 

 weeping branches, opp. coriaceous or fleshy ell.-oblong leaves, and 

 copious panicles of minute greenish- white floAvers or small 1-seeded 

 berries (or drupes, see note). The crushed plant, especially the 

 fruits, has a pungent odour of cress by which it is easily recognisable. 



Western Bihar, Bengal Flayit^. Mahanadi Delta, Orissa ! FI., Fr. April-May. 

 Itoxhurgh says that it flowers and fruits all the year round. Evergreen. Renews 

 leaves m Maj'. 



Bark deeplj- cracked. L. 1-25-2" rounded both ends, sec. n. 3-4 scarcely visible ; 

 by transmitted light the chlorophyll cells appear separated by thick translucent 

 walls. Stipules minute connected by a line. Petiole -l-'d". Panicles, including 

 those from the uppermost axils, -l-s" long with long slender opposite branches 

 ending in the minute scattered flowers. Pedicels articulate "05" in flower, '1" in 

 fruit. Fls. '07" long, sepals rounded, petals oblong-obovate with slightly inflexed 

 tip, stamens shorter than corolla. Ovary minutely pedicelled. Berry -2" diam. 

 Seed embedded in pulp with green testa and large green embryo with orbicular 

 plano-convex cotjdedons. 



The bark of the root is a vesicant. 



iVo^e.— The fruit is usually described as a drupe, but in my specimens there is no 

 sign of a hard endocarp, and Roxburgh describes the " berry smooth red juicy" ! 



2. AZIMA, Lamlc. 



Rambling shrubs with axillary thorns. Fls. dioecious, very small 

 sessile clustered axillary and from leaf-suppression more or less 

 spicate or panicled, bi-acteoles linear. Calyx campanulate or urceo- 

 late 2-4-lobed or -fid. Petals 4 oblong, nearly free, imbricate in bud. 

 Stamens 4, hypogynous. Ovary 2-celled, stigma subsessile, large, 



530 



