115. LAUBACE^. 



jylabrous except the rhachis of the spike which is distinctly pubescent and some- 

 times the young branches and petioles which are puberulous. Petioles '05-15" 

 long-. 



2. P. pellucida, Ktinth. 



A very succulent herb becoming membranous when dry 3-10" high 

 with broadly ovate acute 7-nerved leaves -5-1" long and very slender 

 leaf -opposed spikes 1-2" long by -03" diam., glabrous. Peduncle 

 hardly any. Flowers distant sunk in the rhachis, with most minute 

 peltate bracts -007" diam. Fruits '02" diam. globose prettily marked 

 with about 10 vertical ridges and minute transverse very fine raised 

 lines between. 



Frequent in plant houses, etc., as a weed, but principally noticed by me in the 

 Terai and Duars outside our area. Fl., Fr. c.s. 



Native of South America ; now moi^e or less naturalised. 



FAM. 115. LAURACE^. 



Trees, more rarely shrubs, or (Cassytha) a parasitic filamentous 

 climber. Leaves alternate, rarely opposite or subverticillate, or 

 {tCassytha) 0, entire, frequently clustered at the ends of the branchlets, 

 usually with a characteristic aromatic smell when bruised due to 

 minute glands sometimes visible as translucent dots, exstipulate. 

 Flowers small, greenish or yellowish, regular 1-2-sexual, often clus- 

 tered or cymose, mostly 3-merous. Tepals usually in 2 series of 

 3 each, subsimilar, often connate below, more rarely tepals 5 or 

 rudimentary or 0. Stamens in 2-4 3-nierous whorls of which one 

 w^horl is often reduced to staminodes, hypogynous or perigynous, 

 inner often with 2 large glands at the base ; anthers 2- or 4-celled 

 dehiscent introrsely or extrorsely by as many valves, lids finally 

 deciduous. Ovary 3-carpellary, l-ceiled with one pendulous anatro- 

 pous ovule, style terminal, stigma simple, discoid or dilated often 

 3-lobed. Ovule 1 pendulous anatropous. Fruit baccate, drupaceous 

 or nearly dry, rarely enclosed in or adnate to the perianth tube, but 

 often surrounded at the base by the thickened accrescent receptacle 

 or by the base of the tube and supported on a thickened pediceL 

 Seed' with membranous testa, exalbuminous. Embryo with large 

 plano-convex cotyledons, radicle superior minute. 



The Laurels (though this is not well exemplified in our species) have usually a 

 very characteristic method of branching; only one or. two of the axillary buds 

 from the crowded terminal leaves develops into a slender green shoot bare of 

 leaves at the base. 

 I. Not twining nor parasitic : — 



A. Inflorescence dense, cUistered or umbelliform. All 



anthers introrse and i-celled :— 

 Flower-buds iu densely imbricating bracts. Leaves 



sub-whorled 1. Actinodaphne. 



Flowers in involucrate umbels. Leaves scattered . . 2. Lifscea. 



B. Inflorescence laxlj- cymose or panicled. Innermost 



whorl of perfect stamens with extrorse anthei's :— 

 1. Anthers i-celled. Perfect stamens 9 :— 



a. Tepals persistent. Leaves penninerved : — 



Fruiting tepals spreading or retlexed, not hardened 3. Machilus. 



Fruiting tepals erect, hardened . . . .4. Phoebe. 



i. Tepals deciduous, leaves often 3-nerved . . . o. Cinnamomum. 



791 



