Order 102. Thymeleacece. 281 



ORDER 102. THYME LEACE.E. The Daphne Family, 

 Shrubs or trees, with simple entire leaves without stipules, 

 perianth regular, tubular, 4 or 5-lobed, ovary superior. 



The Daphnes are known to many : " Small evergreens of great 

 beauty and fragrance in the flower, and with a peculiar velvet texture 

 in the leaf " (Loudnri). They have also very tough barks. H. has 

 three species as natives of the Himalayas, and one of Burmah, but I 

 find no mention of any as introduced into gardens in W. India. 

 The single species of the order found here is easily recognizable. 



LASIOSIPHON. Silky shrubs, flowers in dense heads with 

 broad bracts, perianth cylindric, lobes 5, small, spreading, with 

 5 to 10 scales above the 10 stamens, fruit small, dry, included 

 in the base of the perianth. 



L. eriocephalus (L.speciosus,D.). A large and pretty shrub 

 with lanceolate rather acute leaves and dense heads of small 

 yellow flowers surrounded by a large leafy involucre, perianth 

 and bracts silky. Rdmetta. 



Very common and conspicuous on the Ghauts and Konkan hills. 

 H. has it as a small tree or large bush, but it is only in the latter 

 form, I believe, that it is known with us. G. calls it octandrous, 

 and I believe that there may often be a confusion between the 

 stamens and the scales. It seems in India to be confined to the 

 Peninsula. 



ORDER 103. EL-ffiAGNACE-32. Oleasters. 

 Shrubs or trees, more or less covered with minute silvery or 

 brown scurfy scales ; flowers small, regular, perianth tubular, 

 stamens adhering to the tube, ovary free, fruit enclosed in the 

 perianth tube. 



This is a smal 1 order, in characteristics much like the last. Only one 

 species is known in W. India. The oleaster, or wild olive, E. angusti- 

 folia, was in ancient times nearly as famous as the olive itself. 

 " The tree that grows carelessly, tufting the rocks with no vivid 

 bloom, no verdure of branch; only with soft snow of blossom and 

 scarcely full- filled fruit, mixed with grey leaf and thorn-set stem : 

 . . . type of grey honour and sweet rest." RusUn. 



ELEAGNUS. Stamens 4, style linear, stigma lateral. 



E. latifolia. A large climber, all silvery with oval leaves, 

 dotted above, white below, flowers several together, sessile, 

 pale in colour, lobes 4, pistiljvithin the tube, fruit oblong or 

 oval, red, size of an olive. Amgul, nurgi. 



Matheran, Mahableshwar and Ghauts, common. P. has it as very 

 variable in habit, bush, small tree, or climber, but it appears to be 

 known in W. India only as the last. Mr. Birdwood says that the 

 leaves are silvery- white or rusty-red beneath. 



