Sapindus.l SA PINDA CEAE. 249 



rliachis. Flowers small, polygamous, in axillary panicles. Calyx 

 5-lobed ; lobes imbricate, deciduous. Petals 5, small, imbricate, 

 without scales. Disk 5-lobed, tomentose. Stamens 5, inserted 

 within the disk; filaments subulate; anthers ovate. Ovary 

 sessile, globose, 2-celled, in flowers merely a pistillode ; style 

 hooked ; stigma simple or bilobed ; ovules solitary, pendulous. 

 Fruit a fleshy drupe. 1-2-celled and -seeded ; putameii mem- 

 branous. Seeds oblong ; testa membranous ; cotyledons folia- 

 ceous, much crumpled ; radicle ascending. 



FILICIUM DECIPIENS, Thw. ; F. B. I. i. 539 ; Bedd. Fl. t. 129. 

 Wins dvcipims, Wt. 111. i. t. 75 ; W. & A. 172. 



W. Ghats, from Malabar and Nilgiris to Travancore and 



Tinnevelly. up to about 5,000 ft., in somewhat dry localities, 



sometimes planted for ornamemt. 



A handsome tree with elegant fern-like leaves up to 15 in. 



long, the rhachis prominently winged. Wood hard and 



strong, red. Verii. Taut. Ningal ; Hal. Val muriccha, 



Niroli. 



7. Sapindus, Linn. 



Trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate, paripinnate ; leaflets entire, 

 subopposite ; stipules 0. Flowers regular, polygamous, in ter- 

 minal and axillary panicles. Sepals 5, unequal, in 2 series, much 

 imbricate. Petals 4-5 with or without scales on the inner face. 

 Disk annular, lobed. Stamens usually 8, inserted within the 

 disk ; filaments free, usually pilose ; anthers oblong. Ovary 

 entire or 2-4-lobed, 2-4 -celled ; style terminal ; stigma 2-4-lobed ; 

 ovule solitary ; in g flowers a villous pistillode with usually 

 3 styles. Fruit fleshy or coriaceous, of 1-3 indehiscent drupes ; 

 the drupes ovoid or globose, indehiscent, with saponaceous 

 fibrous pericarp, brittle when dry. Seeds usually globose with 

 two integuments, the outer very hard, the inner membranous ; 

 cotyledons thick, fleshy, unequal, spirally convolute ; radicle 

 inferior, pointed. 



Leaflets 2-3 pairs, lanceolate, acuminate at apex, shining above, 

 glabrous or very slightly pubescent beneath ; petals softly woolly on 

 the inner surface except the claw, scales minute or absent ; fruit of 

 3 ferruginous-velvety drupes, almost completely combined 



1. laurifolius. 



