2; 8 The Flowering Plants of Western India. 



genus Prunus. But the true laurel, in Greek Daphne, the tree of 

 Apollo 



" the meed 

 Of mighty conquerors and poets sage" (Spenser), 



is Laurus noUlis, called in England the bay-tree, and supposed to have 

 been brought to Europe from Asia Minor in very early times ; while 

 the shrubs botanically termed Daphne (in English, Mezereon and 

 Spurge laurel) belong not to this, but to the next order. See also 

 under Croton. 



1. CINNAMONUM. Flowers small in panicles, females usually 

 the longest, often with fewer parts, perianth tube short, perfect 

 stamens 9 or fewer in 3 rows, with a row of staminodes, anthers 

 4-celled, fruit seated on the enlarged perianth. 



2. MACHILUS. Flowers in panicles, perianth tube short or 

 none, perfect stamens 9 in 3 rows, with a row of staminode?, 

 anthers 4-celled, berry seated on the perianth. 



3. ALSEODAPHNE. Leaves more or less collected at the end 

 of the branches, flowers in panicles, stamens, staminodes, and 

 anthers as in the last, fruit seated on the thickened peduncle. 



4. LITS.EA. Flowers dioecious, umbelled, with concave bracts, 

 stamens 6 and upwards, anthers 4-celled, fruit seated on the 

 often enlarged perianth tube. 



5. CASSYTHA. Filiform twining leafless parasites, flowers 

 minute with 3 bracts, perfect stamens 9, anthers 2-eelled, fruit 

 enclosed in the succulent perianth tube and crowned by its 

 segments. 



1. CINNAMONUM. 



* C. zeylanicum, the cinnamon tree. A good-sized tree, 

 leaves broad lanceolate or ovate, 3 to 5-nerved, panicle downy 

 or silky, flowers small, greenish white, fruit oblong, dry. 

 OJiej t bojvdr. 



"The cinnamon tree shoots forth its leaves in all shades from bright 

 yellow to dark crimson." Tennent. 



The cultivated cinnamon tree is generally supposed to be found in 

 India only in gardens; but G.'s C. iners (not in D.) is believed by 

 Colonel Beddome, Dr. Dymock, and others, to be only a variety of 

 the above, and H., though giving C. iners as a separate species, seems 

 to incline to the same opinion. G. makes it grow all along the range 

 of Ghauts and in the hilly parts of the Kenkans ; it is not, however, 

 in Mr. Birdwood's Matheran and Mahableshwar list, though he has a 

 species, C. tamala, Mdhdrukh, which H. ascribes only to the Himalayas 

 and N. India. Dr. Dymock thought that the further N. the cinnamon 

 tree is found, the thicker and more mucilaginous is the bark. 



