292 The Flowering Plants of Western India. 



Konkan and Deccan, often planted. Throughout tropical India (If.). 

 The fruit is eatable, and is the Emblic Myrobolan of commerce. 



3. P. Lawii (P. polyphyllus, D.). A rigid twiggy shrub, 

 stems red, leaves oblong, very small, flowers subsessile, females 

 above, fruit 3-lobed. 



Banks of the Bhima, Gutpurba and Krishna (6r.) ; and generally 

 of rivers towards the Ghauts (!>.). 

 I noted it as thorny, for which I find no confirmation. 



* 4. P. madraspatensls. A herb or shrubby, leaves cuneate 

 lanceolate or obovate, nearly sessile, flowers axillary, very 

 small, females largest, sepals green with white margins, capsule 

 dry, round. Kdnocha. 



Common in gardens and cultivated ground (D.). Drier parts of 

 India, very variable in habit (if.)- 



5. P. simplex. Diffuse, smooth with red stems and flattened 

 branches, leaves sessile lanceolate or oblong entire, flowers 

 axillary sessile, capsule rough, seeds black muricated. 



I had this as a small weed, and with branches rising from near the 

 top of the short stem, which agrees with one of H.'s varieties, but he 

 calls it a most variable plant, often shrubby, sometimes 3 feet high. 



6. P. niruri. A much-branched smooth herb, leaves small, 

 elliptic, narrow at the base, stipules 2, narrow, flowers very 

 small, solitary in the axils, perianth persistent of 6 broad and 

 blunt lobes, capsule nearly round of several shallow lobes. 

 Bhui dwali. 



A common weed. Throughout the hotter parts of India (H.). 

 The capsule is like a miniature edition of the fruit of Malva ro- 

 tundifolia, and other mallows. 



H. has another species, P. scabrifolius, known only in the Konkan 

 on the authority of Stocks, which is near the last, but a leafy herb, 

 roughish, with much larger flower and fruit. &. has also *P. urinaria, 

 which he calls much like P. niruri, but distinguishable by sessile 

 flowers and rough capsules. Ldl bhui dwali. H. calls it a low or tall 

 diffusely branched erect or decumbent herb; throughout India. 

 Common in Bombay (#) * P. Indicus (Prosorus 7. D.), a tree with 

 oval or oblong leaves, male flowers very numerous, clustered, sepals 

 generally 4, female flowers larger, capsules in 3's, bluish, roundish. 

 S. Ghauts (D.). 



P.disticlius (Cicca d. D.), a tree, harpharori, raydwdla, is cultivated 

 in gardens for the fruit, which is generally called " country goose- 

 berry ;" tho flowers are minute red. It is a native of the Malay 

 islands. 



