8 MYPSINACE^. [EMBEIIA. 



Bimple or compound, or flowers subf ascicled ; bracts usually sxrall, 

 bracteoles 0. Flowers small, polygamous, mostly dioecious, white or 

 greenish-yellow. Calyx free, 5-fid. or-partite, persistent. Petals 

 4-5, free or slightly cohering at the base, elliptic, spreading or 

 reflexed, usually imbricate in bud. Stamens 4-5 ; filaments more or 

 less adnate to the petals, anthers ovate-oblong, Ovary ovoid or 

 glcbose, rarely with a conical beak, ovules f ew. Fruit small, globose, 

 usually l-Fceded. Seeds globose, hollowed at the base ; endosperm 

 pitted or eubruminate. Species 92 (fide Mez), in the tropics of the 

 Old World. 



Flowers 5-merous, leaves glabrous except on 

 the nerves beneath . . . . . 1. E. robusta. 



Flowers 4-merous, leaves tomentose or pu- 

 bemlous beneath . . . . . 2. E t villosa. 



1. E. robusta, Eoxb. Hort. Beng. 16; Fl. Ind. i, 587 ; F. B. I. Hi, 515 

 (in part) ; Brandis For. Fl. 284 Ind. Trees 416 ; Watt, E. D. ; Kanjilal 

 For. Fl. 8ch. Circ. 216; Gamble Man. Ind. Timb. 440; Mez in Engl. Plan- 

 xenreich iv, 319; Cooke Fl. Bomb, ii, 85 ; Prain Beng. PI. 643. E. picta 

 A. DO.; Eoyle III. 25. Vern. Bayabirang, gaia (Dehra Dun). 



A large rambling shrub or small tree. Branches stout, the younger ones 

 densely rusty-tomentcse. Bark brown, with horizontal cracks and 

 numerous lenticels. Leaves membranous and gland-dotted, 2^-5 in. 

 long, obovate or broadly elliptic, obtuse or subacute or abruptly acumi- 

 nate, rounded or subacute at the base, entire or irregularly toothed, 

 glabrous on the upper surface, usually rusty-pubescent beneath; main 

 nerves 6-12 pairs, slender, conspicuous and with reticulate veins 

 beneath ; petioles about f in. long, channelled above, papillose. 

 Racemes axillary, shorter than the leaves, rusty-puberulous. Flowers 

 5-merous, greenish-yellow ; pedicels longer than the calyx. Sepals 

 slightly connate at the base, ovate, subacute, margins glandular. 

 Petals nearly free, twice as long as the sepals, elliptic-oblong, gland- 

 puberulous, papillose irside. Ovules few, embedded in pulp. Capsule 

 subglobose, red when ripe. 



Dehra Dun and Siwalik range, sub-Himafayan tracts of Eohilkhand 

 and N. Oudh, also in Bundelkband. Flowers July-Sep. DISTRIB. : 

 Throughout the greater part of India, also in Ceylon and Burma. The 

 berries are used medicinally. From the young leaves a gargle is pre- 

 pared, and the dried root-bark is considered to be a remedy for tooth- 

 ache. In Chota Nagpur the berries are much used for the adulteration 

 of black pepper. 



