Ola.r.] OLACACEAK. 189 



petals, hypogynous; anthers erect, linear, 2-celled, dehiscing in 

 opposite longitudinal clefts. Staminodes 0. Ovary superior, 

 sessile, 3-4-celled ; style columnar ; stigma simple ; ovule solitary 

 in each cell, pendulous, anatropous. Fruit an ovoid 1-celled 

 fleshy drupe; stone solitary, putamen crustaceous, 1-seeded. 

 Seed with copious albumen, embryo very small. 



XIMENIA AMERICANA, Linn. ; F. B. I. i. 574 ; W. & A. 89. 



N. Circars, in dry forests in Yizagapatam and Godavari ; 

 Deccan, in dry forests on stony ground, common in the 

 Sandur Hills of Bellary and Walayar Hills of Coimbatore. 

 A large thorny shrub with small ovate obtuse leaves, bright 

 orange-scarlet edible fruit and yellowish-red hard close- 

 grained wood. Vern. Tel. Uranechra ; Tarn. Chiru-illantai. 



2. Olax, Linn. 



Trees or shrubs, often climbing, sometimes armed. Leaves 

 alternate, simple, petioled. Flowers in axillary racemes or 

 panicles, sometimes solitary, minutely bracteate. Calyx minute, 

 cupular, truncate or obscurely toothed, enlarged in fruit. Petals 

 hypogynous, valvate, free or more or less connate, usually 3 two 

 deeply or entirely bifid one entire. Stamens usually 3 fertile, 

 attached opposite to the petals at or near the base alternate with 

 6 bifid staminodes ; anthers oblong, 2-celled, dehiscing longi- 

 tudinally. Ovary free, more or less 3-celled, its" base surrounded 

 by a shallow hypogyiious disk ; style simple ; stigma 3-lobed ; 

 ovules 3, pendulous from the tip of a central placenta. Fruit a 

 drupe more or less enclosed in the accrescent calyx ; stone 

 crustaceous, 1-celled, 1-seeded. Seed inverse ; albumen copious ; 

 embryo minute near the apex of the albumen, radicle superior. 



Small tree ; branchlets angled, transversely ridged, glabrous, yellow ; 



leaves ovate-acuminate, 2-3 in. long, glabrous; flowers -25 in. long in 



small axillary racemes '5 in. long ; drupe '4 in. long, less than half 

 .covered by the enlarged calyx 1. zeylanica. 



Climbing shrubs ; drupe at least three-quarters covered by the enlarged 



calyx : 



Old wood armed with stout curved thorns ; branchlets terete, olive- 

 coloured, pubescent ; leaves obtuse, puberulous beneath, 2-5 in. long ; 

 flowers -3 in. long, in racemes up to 2 in. long ; drupe -4 in. long 



2. scandens. 

 Unarmed ; branchlets glabrous, brown, often prominently lenticellate ; 



