Ii8 The Flowering Plants of Western India. 



2. M. edule. A small handsome tree with ovate entire 

 polished leaves, flowers very small in dense heads or umbels 

 from the naked branches, calyx red inside, white outside, petals 

 purple or blue, fruit round, red or purple. Aryan, yalki, lok- 

 handi. 



Very common at Mahableshwar, and on the Ghanta, less so in S. 

 Konkan. Called the iron-wood tree (Gf.), and the wood Kurpa. H. has 

 12 varieties, but only attributes it to Eastern peninsula and Ceylon. 



Prom the mode of growth the flowers look almost as if they were 

 parasitical on the tree. The colours blend in a lovely manner, and 

 a poetical forest officer aptly described them to me as forming 

 "globes of pink and blue and white, like living opals." 



Note. The name ' Iron-wood tree ' is applied in different places 

 to a variety of trees. 



* M. terminals, a low shrub, leaves sessile lanceolate, flowers 

 unbelled blue, fruit like a large pea. E. Ghauts and Canara (D.). 



Sonerila. Small herbs, calyx, teeth, petals, and stamens 3, the 

 latter with a connective. * 8. fcapigera, stemless, leaves radical, 

 ovate, long-petioled, flowers unbelled, mauve, capsule bell-shaped. 

 Ghauts and Konkan hills (D.). 



ORDER 52. LYTHRACE^!. 



Leaves simple, entire, generally opposite, without stipules, 

 calyx tubular, lobes 3 to 6, often with additional smaller ones, 

 petals as many : ovary free at the bottom of the calyx tube ; 

 capsule crowned by the calyx ; seeds many. 



It is characteristic of this order that the petals are inserted on 

 the top of the calyx tube, and the stamens a little lower down. The 

 order has on this side of India some very poor-looking herbs (tribe 

 Ammaniese), and some very beautiful trees and shrubs (tribe 

 Lythreae). So in England the beautiful purple loose strife (Ly- 

 ihrum salica-ria) is balanced by the insignificant water purslane 

 (Peplis portula). 



TRIBE 1. AMMANIE^. Low or aquatic herbs with small 

 flowers and membranous calyx. 



1. AMMANLA. Stems often 4-sided, flowers axillary often 

 sessile, stamens 2 to 8. 



TRIBE 2. LYTHREAE. Trees or shrubs, calyx herbaceous. 



2. WOODFORDIA. A shrub, calyx long, tubular, 6-toothed, 

 petals 6, very small, or none ; stamens 12. 



3. LAWSONIA. A smooth shrub, calyx tube very short, lobes 

 and petals 4, stamens 8 in pairs between the petals, style very 

 long, capsule round, breaking up irregularly. 



