164 FLOE A OF MADRAS. [Balanites. 



3. Balanites, Delile. 



Small trees or shrubs armed with strong sharp spines, often 

 ending arrested branchlets. Leaves alternate, 2-foliolate ; leaflets 

 entire. Flowers small, green, fragrant, in axillary cymes. Sepals 

 5, imbricate, deciduous. Petals 5, oblong, spreading, imbricate. 

 Disk thick, conical, 10-grooved, hollowed at the apex. Stamens 

 10, inserted in the furrows at the base of the disk ; filaments 

 slender, subulate ; anthers inserted at the back. Ovary entire, 

 globose, 1-celled ; style short ; stigmas minute ; ovules 1 in each 

 cell, pendulous from below the apex. Fruit a large fleshy oily 

 1-seeded drupe ; putamen bony, 5-angled, 1-seeded. Seed 

 pendulous ; testa fibrous ; albumen ; cotyledons thick, oblong, 

 plano-convex ; radicle superior. 



BALANITES BOXBURGHII, Planch. ; F. B. I. i. 522. B. aegyptiaca, 

 Wt. Ic. t. 274. 



N. Circars in Vizagapatam ; Deccan, common in Hyderabad, 

 Ceded Districts and Mysore, in dry forests, characteristic 

 also of black-cotton soils. 



A small tree with ashy-grey foliage, grey bark and yellowish- 

 white wood of peculiar structure. Vern. Hind. Hingu ; Tel. 

 Gari ; Tarn. Nanjunda. 



Family XXXYI. OCHNACEAE. 



Trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate, glabrous, simple or rarely 

 pinnate ; stipules 2. Flowers regular, hermaphrodite, con- 

 spicuous, in racemes panicles or umbels rarely solitary, terminal 

 axillary or on short lateral branchlets. Sepals 4-5, free, imbricate, 

 persistent. Petals 5, rarely 4-10, free, deciduous, imbricate. 

 Disk thick, enlarged in fruit, sometimes 0. Stamens 4, 5, 8, 10 or 

 indefinite, inserted at the base of the disk ; anthers dehiscing 

 longitudinally or by terminal pores. Ovary short and 2-celled or 

 elongate and 1-10-celled ; placentas axile or parietal ; styles 

 simple, subulate, straight or incurved ; stigmas terminal ; ovules 

 1-2 in each cell or indefinite, erect or rarely pendulous. Fruit 

 indehiscent, drupaceous or baccate, each drupe or pyrene 1-4- 

 seeded, or capsular and 1-5-celled with septicidal dehiscence. 

 Seeds solitary or few, rarely numerous ; albumen fleshy or ; 

 embryo usually straight. 



Stamens indefinite anthers opening longitudinally 1 . Ochna. 



Stamens 10, anthers opening by terminal pores 2. Ouratea. 



