HO The Flowering Plants of Western India. 



The true mangroves are known by the remarkable way in which 

 the seed germinates and is thrust down into the salt-water mud. 

 But the order also contains forest trees with no special peculiarity, 

 one of which is given below. 



1. EHIZOPHORA. Calyx lobes 4, petals 4 entire, disk fleshy, 

 stamens 8, stigma bifid. The radicle of the seed pierces through 

 the apex of the fruit before the fruit drops. 



2. BRUGUIERA. Petals 8 to 14 bifid, embracing the stamens, 

 anthers about as long as the filaments ; ovary included in the 

 calyx tube : germination as in the last. 



3. CARALLIA. Jungle trees, calyx lobes 5 to 8, petals as 

 many on the edge of a finely crenated disk, clawed, roundish, 

 stamens inserted with the petals, fruit round, one-seeded, 

 germinating in the usual way. 



1. RHIZOPHORA. 



JR. mucronata. A small tree or large shrub, leaves ovate 

 with a long sudden point, fleshy, veinless, chiefly about the 

 ends of the branches, flowers white, fragrant, calyx yellowish, 

 segments triangular, anthers large, erect, radicle nearly cylin- 

 drical, pointed. Kdndal, liariya, 



Very common along the coast S. of Bombay, where many of the 

 creeks have a broad belt of mangrove swamp. The radicles, nearly a 

 foot long, are washed up in quantities all along the beach. (Brandis 

 says they are often 2 feet long). This is often called ' the black 

 mangrove.' These radicles would naturally be taken for the fruit, 

 but they should be examined while still upon the tree. 



" The sea-loving mangrove with its sickening ooze, and fantastic 

 centipedal roots." H. M. Stanley. 



" The aerial roots, as they are called, which are also seen in Pan- 

 danus, often raise the main trunk much above its original level, and 

 give the tree the appearance of being supported upon stalks." 

 Balfour. 



"As far as the eye could pierce into the tangled thicket, the roots 

 interlaced with each other, and arched down into the water in in- 

 numerable curves by no means devoid of grace, but hideous just 

 because they were impenetrable." Kingsley. 



2. BRUGUIERA. 



B. parviflora (Kanilia p. D.). Like the last, but smaller 

 every way, leaves blunt or obovate, flowers in nearly sessile 

 clusters, small, greenish, calyx segments and petals 6 or 8, 

 radicle like the last, but smaller. 



Found in similar situations, but not nearly so common. 



