248 xix. PORTUtACE^:. (W. T. Thiselton Dyer.) [Talinum. 



Stems shrubby, erect, striate. Leaves 1-2 in., cuneiform-obovate, uppermost mucro- 

 nate. Flowers in a terminal subdichotomously branched panicle, with small acuminate 

 membranous-edged bracts ; pedicels decurved in fruit. Petals 4, purple. Sepals \ in. 

 long, broadly ovate, margins membranous, rather obtuse. Style very short, 3-fid. 

 Capsule globose, about in. diam. 



ORDER XX. TAMARISCHXTE-ffi. (By W. T. Thiselton Dyer, F.L.S.) 



Undershrubs, bushes, or small trees. Leaves alternate, very minute, often 

 scale-like, exstipulate, rarely sheathing, sometimes fleshy or impress-punctate. 

 Flowers solitary or in spiked or panicled racemes, regular, rarely 1 -sexual. 

 Sepals and .petals each 5, rarely 4, imbricate, free or connate below. Staim-n* 

 5-10-co, inserted on the disk, free or connate below; anthers versatile. 

 Disk hypogynous or subperigynous, 10-glandular. Ovary free, 1 -eel led, or 

 imperfectly septate ; styles 2-5, free or connate, or stigmas 3-5, sessile ; 

 ovules 2-oo on each basal placenta, anatropous, raphe ventral, mirropyle 

 inferior. Capsule 3-valved. Heeds erect, plumed or winged ; albumen floury, 

 subfleshy or 0; embryo straight, cotyledons flat. DISTRIB. Cold, tem- 

 perate and hot regions, often in saline or sandy plains ; genera 5, species 

 about 40. 



Stamens free, styles 3 1. TAMARIX. 



Stamens connate, stigmas sessile 2. MYKKJARIA. 



1. TAMARIX, Linn. 



Bushes or small trees. Leaves scale-like, amplexicaul or sheathing. In- 

 florescence of lateral or terminal spikes or dense racemes ; flowers white or 

 pink. Stamens 4, 5, 8 or 10: anthers apiculate. />/>/ more or less lobed 

 from varying confluence of the glands. Ovary narrowed upwards; styles 

 3-4, short, dilated into the stigmas ; placentas basal ; ovules many. Seeds 

 with a sessile plume, exalbuminous ; embryo ovoid. DISTRIB. Of the 

 Order ; species about 20. 



* Stamens 5. 



1. T. gallica, Linn. ; leaves not sheathing smooth subulate or scale- 

 like acute, disk 5-lobed. 



Throughout INDIA from the N.W. HIMALAYA to BIRMA and CEYLON, near river?, ami 

 along the sea coast. DISTRIB. W. and S. shores of Europe, N. and Tropical Africa, 

 S. Asia. 



A bush or small tree ; branches slender. Flowers \ in. diam., shortly pedicelled in 

 slender panicled spike-like racemes. Si-pai* triangular-ovate, much shorter than the 

 petals. Glands of disk more or less coalescing in pairs. Ovary sub-3-gonous, sub- 

 sessile ; styles 3, articulated to the ovary, slightly connate. Divided into numerous 

 species differing in minute and uncertain characters. 



TT . _' J_* il/'ll 1 "_ A i "XT 1^1 I I 



divaricate, 



Keen. 



oroides, 



VAR. 2. Pallatfii, Desv. in Ann. Sc. Nat. iv. 349 (sp.); glaucescent or glaucous, branch- 

 lets erect, leaves shortly decurrent, lobes of the disk deeply emarginate. aaU*. Ft < >ri< ///. 

 i. 773. T. ramosissima, Ledeb. Ic. Fl. Ross. t. 256. Western Tibet, alt. 8-12,000 ft. 



2. T. salina, Dyer ; leaves cordif orm subamplexicaul strongly impress- 

 punctate. 



WESTERN PANJAB ; Salt Range at Caffir Kote and Esakhail, Fleming. 



