304 The Flowering Plants of Western India. 



Matheran and Mahableshwar. Common in the hilly parts of the 

 Konkan (D.). 



Called in Mysore the charcoal tree (R. H. Elliot}. R. very tersely 

 cordemns it : " This tree is neither useful, nor ornamental, nor is it 

 of long duration." 



4. STREBLUS. 



S. asper (JEpicarpus orientalis, D.). A small scraggy tree, 

 with ovate or obovate leaves very rough, serrated ; flowers aggre- 

 gated, nearly fsessile, stamens long, folded up, opening elas- 

 tically, anthers leafy, fruit yellow, compressed, size of a pea, suc- 

 culent, with reflexed calyx attached. Kdru, Karoti, Sareru. 



Very common in Konkan hedges, also in Guzerat. Drier parts of 

 India (H.). It has the general appearance of a thorn tree. The 

 leaves vary much in shape ; they are used to polish wood and ivory. 



5. FlCUS. Fig. 



This is a very difficult genus to describe, for many of the species 

 eeem to run into one another. H. has 112 of them, divided into 7 

 sections, but I do not find much help from these divisions. H. lays 



great stress on the venation of the leaves, which I have accordingly 



given, mostly on his authority. 



In all the species here given the flowers are monandrous, " and 

 grow, closely packed, inside a pear-shaped receptacle, the month of 

 which is closed by bracts. To see the flowers it is necessary to open 

 the receptacle (commonly called the fruit) while still young and 

 green. When it ripens, the true fruits (commonly called the seeds) 

 are found shut up in it, mixed with a pulp formed of the remains 

 of the flowers" (Camel). Some writers give the name of syconus to 

 this sort of aggregated fruit, of which the cultivated fig is the best 

 example. H. always calls it the receptacle, but I think it better to 

 retain the simple name of fruit. 



* 1. F. yibbosa (Urostigma ampelos and volubile, D.). A 

 tree or climbing shrub, trunk short, thick, often concealed by 

 numerous small leafy branchlets, bark smooth, ash-coloured ; 

 leaves obliquely oval, rough, 3-nerved, the nerves prominent 

 and pale, petioles channelled, male and female flowers in separate 

 receptacles, fruit in pairs, size of a pea, yellow. Ddtir. 



Ghauts (D.). Throughout India (H.). 



H. calls this a protean plant, and divides the forms into 4 groups. 

 Mr. Birdwocd calls F. volubile the climbing fig. 



2. F. Bengalensis (Urostigma^ B. D,). The banyan tree, 

 called by some old writers " the Brahminee fig." Throwing 

 out roots from the branches and thus making subsidiary stems, 

 bark smooth, light ash-colour, leaves ovate, roundish, downy 



