Jlernandia.] cxviA. hernandiace^ (sprague). 191 



2. HERNANDIA, Linn. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. iii. 164 



Flowers monoecious. Perianth-segments in two valvate whorls, 

 free, spreading. Male flower : Perianth-segments 6 (in both the 

 African species) or 8. Stamens 3 or 4, opposite the outer segments ; 

 anthers dehiscing introrsely, valves opening outwards. Staminodes 

 either as many as the stamens and alternate with them, or (in both the 

 African species) twice as many and attached one on either side at the 

 base of each filament, or absent. Female flower surrounded at the 

 base by a cupular truncate or bilobed involucel. Perianth-segments 

 •8 (in both the African species) or 10. Staminodes 4 or 5, opposite the 

 outer segments. Style geniculate at or a little above the middle ; 

 stigma obliquely peltate. Fruit more or less distinctly 8-ribbed, sur- 

 rounded by an inflated fleshy cupule. Cotyledons lobed like the human 

 brain. — Trees. Leaves simple, long-petioled, undivided, sometimes 

 peltate. Cymes long-peduncled, corymbose, bracteate, borne in the 

 axils of the upper leaves ; cymules surrounded by an involucre of 4-5 

 f oliaceous bracts, usually 3-flowered, the central flower female, the two 

 lateral male. 



Species 12, in the tropical parts of both the Old and New World. 



Branchlets glabrous; leaves distinctly peltate, 7-nerved 



at the insertion of the petiole 1. ^. peltata, 



Branchlets puberulous; leaves not peltate or slightly 



peltate, 5-nerved at the insertion of the petiole . . 2. H. heninensis. 



1. H. peltata, Meis7i. in DC. Prodr, xv. i. 263. A tree, 40-50 

 ft. high with a clear trunk of 20-25 ft., 5-12 ft. in circumference; 

 head wide-spreading ; wood soft, light, grey. Branchlets stout, 

 glabrous. Leaves broadly ovate, peltate, rounded-truncate, retuse or 

 cordate at the base, shortly acuminate and subobtuse at the apex, more 

 rarely obtuse or rounded, 4^-12 in. long, 3-9 in. broad, subcoriaceous, 

 glabrous, digitately 7-nerved at the insertion of the petiole, remaining 

 nerves 3-4 on each side of the midrib ; petiole 2 J-8 in. long. Corymbs 

 4-12 long including the peduncle, which is 2J-7 in. long. Flowers 

 whitish. Perianth-segments of male flower about 2 lin. long. Stamens 

 monadelphous for J lin. below ; anthers J lin. long; free part of fila- 

 ment I lin. long, pubescent. Fruit ellipsoid, with a broad rounded 

 umbo, 8-ribbed, ]|- in. long; cupule subglobose, about 1^ in. in diam. 

 — Seem. Fl. Vitien. 204, t. 52; Benth. FL Austr. v. 314 ; Beddome, 

 Fl. Sylv. t. 300 ; Baker, Fl. Maurit. 293 ; Kurz, For. Fl. Brit. Burma, 

 ii. 309 ; Hook, f . Fl. Brit. Ind. v. 188 ; Trimen, Handb. Fl. Ceylon, 

 iii. 456 ; Engl. Pfl. Ost-Afr. C. 183; Greshoff, Nutt. Ind. PI. t. 21 ; 

 Brandis, Indian Trees, 542 ; Hattori in Journ. Coll. Sci. Tokyo, xxiii. 

 X. 13. H. sonora, Linn. Sp. PI. ed. i. 981 (as to the Ceylon plant only) ; 

 Wight, Ic. t. 1855. 



Mozaxnl). Dlst. Zanzibar : on the eastern, stony part of the island, Siuhlmann, 

 jser. i. 783. 



