Mastiseia.] CORNACEAE. 573 



copious enclosing the subfoliaceous cotyledons ; embryo axile, 

 radicle terete or flattened. 



Mastixia, Blume. 



Trees, the branches terete. Leaves opposite or alternate, 

 petioled, entire. Flowers small, hermaphrodite, in terminal many- 

 flowered panicles ; bracts small or elongate ; bracteoles 2 at the 

 base of the calyx-tube ; pedicel articulate. Calyx-tube campanu- 

 la te, limb 4-5-lobed. Petals 4-5, ovate, coriaceous, valvate, the 

 apex inflexed. Stamens 4-5, alternate with the petals ; filaments 

 short ; anthers oblong-cordate. Disk fleshy, 4-5-lobed. Ovary 

 1-celled; ovule 1, pendulous near the top of the cell ; style short, 

 cylindric. Fruit an ovoid or ellipsoid drupe, crowned by the 

 scar of the calyx-lobes ; putamen woody, grooved down one side. 

 Seed ellipsoid ; testa membranous ; albumen fleshy ; cotyledons 

 foliaceous ; radicle elongate. 



Bracts hardly any ; bracteoles small, linear lanceolate ; leaves 

 elliptic, suddenly narrowed in a twisted acumen, glabrous, drying 

 black or bluish, paler beneath ; inflorescence stout, subglabrous or 

 sparsely puberulous ; flower buds '1 in. in diam.; drupe 1 in. by 



*75 in 1. arborea. 



Bracts leafy, up to '75 in. long ; leaf -acumen not or slightly twisted; 

 flower-buds about '05 in. in diam. : 



Bracteoles conspicuous, linear ; leaves elliptic, glabrous, drying 

 grey, almost glaucous beneath ; inflorescence slender and spreading, 



tawny- villous ; drupe not known 2. Meziana. 



Bracteoles small, lanceolate -acuminate ; leaves elliptic-oblong, 

 glabrous or puberulous when young, drying olive-green, pale 

 beneath;. inflorescence slender but close, densely white-villous ; 

 drupe oblong, 1*25 by '5 in 3. pentandra. 



1. MASTIXIA ARBOREA, C. B. Clarke; F. B. I. ii. 745; Bedd. 

 PI. t. 216. Bursinopetalum arboreum, Wt. Ic. t. 956. 



W. Ghats, from S. Canara southwards, in evergreen forests 

 from 3,000 ft. upwards. 



A large tree with coriaceous leaves and a large greenish- 

 purple drupe. Bark pale brown, lenticellate ; wood greyish- 

 yellow, soft. 



2. MASTIXIA MEZIANA, Wangerin in Fedde Rep. iv. 336. 



W. Coast, in Malabar and northwards (teste Wangerin). 

 A tree with conspicuously bracteate inflorescence. 



