115. LAURACEjE. 



2. Anthers 2-celle(l :— 



Fruit not enclosed by perianth-tube . . . .6. BeiUchmiedia. 

 Fruit enclosed by and often adnate to perianth-tube . 7. Cryptocarya. 

 II, Twinint? leafless thread-like parasites 8. Casgytha. 



1. ACTINODAPHNE, Nees. 



Evergreen trees with subverticillate leaves and small dicBcious fls. 

 in axillary or lateral dense bracteate clusters, racemes or umbels, 

 the bracts imbricating and caducous. Calyx-tube short. Tepals 6, 

 deciduous in fruit. St. (3-9. Anths. all introrse and 4-celled. Sta- 

 minodes 9 in female. Fruit seated on the enlarged cup-shaped 

 perianth tube. 



1. A. angustifolia, Nees. Inc. A. Hookeri, Meissn; Jharjhampa, 

 Tengeda, Sabalia, Or. 

 A mod. -sized tree with subverticillate (mostly 6 in a whorl) lanceo- 

 late to narrowly oblanceolate leaves, rarely in our area lanceolate- 

 obovate, 4" by 1" to 10" by 2-5", glaucous beneath and dark shining 

 above, tapering both ends. Petiole -3- -5". Fls. mostly from the 

 axils of fallen bud scales between the verticils, inflorescence silkily 

 tomentose. Males clustered or shortly racemose with rhachis not 

 exceeding -S" and silky pedicels •2--25", perianth rotate or subcam- 

 panulate, tepals ovate to ovate-oblong, •15--2", nearly glabrous 

 inside, st. far exserted with anthers -1" long, filaments '15" pilose. 

 Fem. in clusters or in subsessile simple or slightly branched umbels, 

 tube campanulate -08", tepals spreading ovate-oblong "12" long, 

 staminodes 9 perigynous linear-subulate, innermost 2-glandular as 

 in the male, ovary and style hirsute. Fruit globose or elliptic •25-*3" 

 seated on the cupular truncate swollen perianth-tube. 



Valleys in erood soil, over the whole province in the better forests, but nowhere 

 abundant, Fl. Auo^. (or Feb. in the south). Fr. Nov.-May. Evergreen. 



Shoots and innovations densely brown villose, buds perulate. Old leaves 

 somewhat brown-villose on the nerves beneath or cfuite glabrous, sec. n. 7-12 

 oblique, raised beneath, weak and looping towards margin, tertiaries very fine, 

 scalariform, margin thickened. Petiole tomentosely-hairy or finely pubescent or 

 glabrescent according to age. 



Excepting possiblj'' some specimens with broadly ovate-lanceolate leaves not 

 occurring in our area the northern A. angustifolia and the southern A. Hookeri 

 are the same species. Mr. Gamble has kindly suj^plied me with excellent M, and F. 

 flowering specimens of A. Hookeri collected by C. E. C. Fischer in Chingleput, and 

 these more closely resemble specimens from northern Bengal than the.v do some 

 from intermediate localities such as southern Orissa. The two species are widely 

 separated by Meissner in the Prodromus since he places {ns Hooker says wroigli/) 

 A. Hookeri in the section Notholitsa^a. Possibly Mei»»uer's A. Hookeri, which he 

 divides into 3 varieties, really includes 3 different species, one of which only 

 belongs to angustifolia. Hooker also ])laces the two species far apart on the 

 characters " fem. fl. in sessile or subsessile clusters or umbels" in one section to 

 which he assigns A. Hookeri, and " fem. fl. in peduncled umbels or clusters " in the 

 other section to which he assigns A. angustifolia. As, however, he says under 

 A. Hookeri, "fem. umbelled or subracemose on a short stout peduncle," these 

 sectional characters become immeiliately vitiated, and the only difference I find 

 is that angustifolia has the umbels often compound. The geographical test. 

 Northern India or Deccan species, is also inapplicable from my having collected 

 the plant from Chota Nagpur, Bonai, Puri (with oblanceolate leaves only 5*2 by 

 1-9" only), Mayurbhanj, and Pallahara State (Cooper !), which connects up the two 

 areas of distribution. The shape of the fruit is given as globose in the F.B.I, in. 

 the case of A. angustifolia and ellipsoid in the case of A. Hookeri. but this is not 

 consistent with the other distinctions. 



The heartwood is brown but is not used. 



792 



