SAPIUM. ] EUPHOUBIACEM. 115 



females in the lower part of the spikes or racemes, or in 

 separate spikes, solitary in the bracts. MALE flowers : 

 Calyx membranous, shortly 2-3-lobed or toothed, or splitting 

 to the base into 2 or 3 valvate segments. Stamens 2 or 

 3, filaments free ; anther-cells ovoid, distinct, contiguous, 

 parallel. Pistillode none. FEM. flowers: Calyx 3-fid. or 3- 

 partite. Ovary 2-3- celled, styles free or connate at the base, 

 spreading and recurved, entire ; ovules solitary in each cell. Fruit 

 a crustaceous capsule, fleshy or pulpy, rarely woody, at length 

 loculicidally 3-valved. Seeds globose, with a strophiole, usually 

 long-persistent on the columella, testa crustaceous, albumen fleshy, 

 cotyledons broad and flat. Species 25, all tropical. 



S. Insigne, Trimen Syst. Cat. Ceyl. PI. 83 ; F. B. I. v, 471 / 

 Watt E. D.; Kanjildl For. Fl. (ed. 2) 356 ; Collett Fl. Siml. 453; 

 Gamble Man. 625 ; Prain Beng. PL 954 ; Cooke Fl. Bomb, ii, 622 ; 

 Brandis Ind. Trees 585. Falconeriadnsignis, Royle III. 354, t. 84 a 

 ort. 98. F. Wallichiana, Royle l.c.f. 3. Excaecaria insignis, Muell. 

 Arg.; Brandis For. Fl. 442. Vern. Khinna, khirun, khiria, 

 khirni, lendwa. 



A medium-sized glabrous deciduous tree or shrub, with a thick acrid 

 milky juice ; bark grey, rough and cork-like when old ; branches 

 thick and soft. Leaves bright-green, crowded towards the ends of the 

 branches, 5-10 in. long, elliptic-or oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, 

 crenate- serrate ; base acute, sometimes unequal ; main lateral 

 nerves 10-16 pairs, slender ; petioles 1-lf in. long, with 2 conspicuous 

 glands at the apex. Flowers appearing before the leaves, yellowish 

 green, in 1 -sexual robust spikes 3-8 in. long. MALE FLOWERS sessile, 

 -* in. in diam., the central flower of each fascicle opening first. 

 Sepals 2, open in bud, orbicular, concave, ^ in. in diam. Stamens 

 2, filaments very short, anthers scarlet, FEM. FLOWERS shortly 

 stalked. Sepals ovate-acuminate. Styles 3. short spreading, slightly 

 connate at the base. Capsules $ in. in diam., subglobose, at first 

 fleshy, becoming dry and irregularly dehiscent when ripe, closely 

 packed on the robust rhachis. 



Dehra Dun and Sub-Himalayan tract eastwards. Flowers Jan . March- 

 DISTRIB. : Outer warm valleys of the Himalaya on dry rocky slopes 

 from the Beas eastwards to Bhutan (not in Sikkim) up to 5,500 ft. ; 

 also in Assam. Chittagong and Burma ; extending to the Bombay 

 Pres., S. India and Ceylon. The soft white wood is used for making 

 the cylinders of native drums. The acrid milky juice, said to be 



