CXLIII. GNETACE^. (J. D. Hooker.) 641 



TEMPERATE and ALPINE HIMALAYA and WESTERN TIBET in the drier regions, 

 alt. 7-12,000 ft. ; 12-16,000 ft. in Sikkim. DISTRIB. Europe, W. and Central Asia. 



A low-growing rigid tufted shrub with usually a gnarled stem and erect green 

 branches, 6 in.-4 ft. Spikdets - in., subsessile, often whorled; fruiting with 

 often fleshy red succulent bracts, 1-2-seeded. Seeds biconvex or plano-convex. [ 

 follow Brandis in referring IE. Gerarditina to vulgaris. From its locality I suspect 

 that Hegel's E. glauca is the same as a common West Tibetan form. 



2. E. pachyclada, Boiss. Fl. Orient, v. 713 ; branches rather stout 

 erect striate scaberulous, bracts connate to the middle margined eciliate, 

 anthers about 6 sessile or subsessile. 



WESTERN HIMALAYA in the drier regions, and WESTERN TIBET, from Garwhal 

 westwards, ascending to 15,500 ft., Thomson, Edgeivorth, Clarke, &c. DISTRIB. 

 Affghanistan, E. Persia. 



A rather tall shrub, described by Boissier from male plants alone .; it is generally 

 more robust than E. vulgaris, and more scabrid. Gilgit specimens collected by Clarke 

 are very scabrid. I can find no good characters in the spike's and flowers except the 

 more or less margined bracts. 



3. E. peduncular is, Boiss. Fl. Orient, v. 717; scandent, branches 

 slende'r, leaves often developed filiform, male catkins sessile or peduncled 

 6-20 fld., anthers sessile, fern, bracts 4 pairs ciliate, lower pairs confluent 

 patelliform uppermost shortly 2-fid. E. Alte, Brand. For. Fl. 501, t. (59. 

 E. alata (? misprint for Alte), Edgew. in Journ. Linn. Soc. vi. 194. 



The PANJAB, RAJPOOTANA and SCINDE ; Balewala, Edgew. ; the Salt and Mar- 

 gulla Ranges, Vicary, Fleming, &c. DISTRIB. Affghanistan to Syria. 



A tall sarmentose climber, covering rocks and bushes, often glaucous ; branchlets 

 often fascicled and filiform, sometimes scaberulous. Male catkins often on a 

 peduncle 1-1| in., rarely axillary and fascicled, fern, peduncles often recurved. 

 Fruit with often flesby red bracts that sometimes are so large and juicy as to re- 

 semble grapes and be eatable. Boissier distinguishes peduncularis from Alte by the 

 minute male catkins, and slender recurved peduncles of the female, but these cha- 

 racters I find to be valueless, and I quite believe that these, together with E.foliata, 

 Boiss., and ciliata, Fisch. & Meyer, will prove to be one species. 



2. GNETU1VI, Linn. 



Climbing monoecious or dioecious evergreen shrubs or erect trees, 

 branches jointed. Leaves opposite, quite entire, pennineryed. Flowers 

 whorled in the axils of the cup-shaped bracts of axillary or terminal solitary 

 or panicled spikes, often surrounded with jointed hairs. Male fl. ; peri- 

 anth narrowly clavate, entire or valvately 2-fld. ; anther-cells 2, slits 

 terminal. Fern. fl. (some imperfect) ; ovule ovoid or globose, inner integu- 

 ment produced into a slender exserted tube with often a toothed or 

 iimbriate mouth. Seed drupaceous. Species about 15, Tropical Asia, 

 Africa, America and Pacific. 



The species of this genus want further investigation ; they are evidently very 

 variable in foliage and in the size and form of the seed. I cannot identify several 

 of the species enumerated in Griffith's " Notulse," and of which analyses are given in 

 his " Icoues." 



* Ovary and seed sessile. 



1. G-. C-nemon, Linn. Mant. 125 ; an erect monoecious tree or shrub, 

 leaves from elliptic-lanceolate to broadly oblong acuminate or cuspidate ; 

 spikes solitary or panicled, hairs round the ovary white, seed ovoid acute 

 sessile. JSndl. Conif. 250; Parlat. in DC. Prodr. xvi. ii. 349; Roxb. FL 



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