32 APOCYNACE&. [RAUWOLPIA. 



Wild in the Baraich and Gonda forests of N. Oudh and in the Gorakhpur 

 district, but cultivated in many places within the area. Flowers 

 January- April. DISTBIB, Wild or cultivated throughout India and 

 in Ceyion, extending to Burma ani Malaya. The wood is suitable for 

 turnery, and the branches make excellent hedges. The half-ripe fruit 

 is eaten as a pickle, and the ripe fruit is also much eaten both raw and 

 as a preserve. 



2. C. spinarum, Linn. Mantiss. App. 559; F. B. I. Hi, 631 ; Watt E. D. 

 Kanjildl For. Fl. 232; Gamble Man. Ind. Timb. 480; Cooke Fl. Bomb. ii t 

 125 ; Prain Beng. PI. 669. 0. diffusa, Eoxb. Fl. Ind. i t 689. C. hirsata, 

 Roth. C. villosa, Roscb. Fl. Ind, ii (1824), 525. Vern. Karaunda. 



A small evergreen shrub, glabrous or with the branches inflorescence and 

 leaves pubescent. Bark light grey, fibrous. Leaves smaller than those 

 of C. CarandaB and usually acute or mucronate. Flowers scented, 

 white cr tinged with pink. Calyx divided almost to the base. Berry 

 subglobose, in. in diam., red changing to dark purple when ripe. 



Very common within the area as a forest shrub in dry and rocky 

 situations. Often forming extensive undergrowth in forests of bamboo 

 and f inns longifolia in the Siwalik tracts, and in the teak forests of 

 Bundelkhand and Saugor. Flowers April- June, and the fruit ripens 

 during the cold season. DISTRIB. Outer Himalayan ranges up to 

 6,000 feet from Kashmir to Sikkim, and throughout the drier parts of 

 India and in Ceylon, extending to the S. Andamans and Burma. The 

 branches afford excellent material for dry fences, and the wood is used 

 in turnery. The leaves are eaten greedily by sheep and goats, and the 

 berries, like those of C. Carandas t are eaien either raw or as a cooked 

 preserve. C. hirsuta is a much more pubescent form, and is not 

 uncommon in the sub-Himalayan tracts of JRohilkhand and N. Oudh. 



2. RAUWOLFIA, Linn. ; Fl. Brit. Ind. iii, 632. 



Small shrubs. Leaves whorled, rarely opposite. Flowers small, 

 in terminal or pseudo-axillary 2-3-chotoinous umbel-like ov corymbi- 

 form cymes. Peduncles alternating with the terminal leaves, 

 finally becoming lateral. Calyx 5- fid, or -partite, eglandular within, 

 Corolla salver -shaped, tube cylindric, dilated round the anthers, 

 throat usaally hairy within ; lobes 5, overlapping to the left. 

 Stamens included, attached at or above the middle of the tube ; 

 anthers small, acute, free from the stigma, cells rounded at the base. 

 Disk large, cup-shaped or annular, entire or slightly lobed. Carpels 

 2, distinct or connate, style filiform ; stigma capitate, calyptriform 

 at the base, tip 2-fid. ; ovules 2, collateral in each carpel. Kipe 

 carpels drupaceous, distinct or connate, usually 1-seeded. Seeds 

 ovoid, albumen fleshy, cotyledons flat, radicle straight or recurved. 

 Species about 50, in the tropics of both hemispheres and in S. Africa. 



