128 UETICACEM. [ BOEHMERIA. 



8. BOEHMERIA, Jaoq. ; Fl. Brit. Ind. V, 575. 



Shrubs or small trees. Leaves opposite or alternate, toothed, 

 3-nerved at the base ; stipules usually free, deciduous. Flowers 

 monoecious or dioecious, both sexes in axillary spicate racemed or 

 panicled clusters ; bracts small, scarious. MALE flowers : Perianth 

 3-5-lobed or partite, valvate. Stamens 3-5, inflexed in bud. 

 Pistillode elevate or globose. FEM. flowers : j. erianth tubular, 

 2-4-toothed, angled winged or ventricose in fruit. Ovary included ; 

 stigma filiform, persistent, ovule erect. Fruit a crustaceous achene^ 

 at first closely invested by the perianth, at length free. Seed with 

 membranous testa, ablumen copious or scanty, cotyledons ovate. 

 Species about 45, chiefly tropical. 



Leaves all alternate A tree . . . 1. B. rugulosa. 



Leaves mostly opposite Shrubs : 



Leaves lanceolate ; petioles up to one inch 



long . . . . . . 2. B. macropJiylla. 



Leaves broadly ovate or orbicular ; petioles 

 exceeding one inch : 

 Female spikes long, overtopping the ter- 

 minal leaves . . . . . 3. B. platyphylla. 



Female spikes short, erect, not overtopping 



the terminal leaves . . . . 4. B. scabrella. 



1. B. rugulosa, Wedd. in Ann. /tfc. Nat. Ser. 4, i, 200 ; Brandis 

 For. Fl. 403 ; Ind. Trees 617 ; F. B. I. V, 577 ; Kanjilal For. Fl. 

 (ed. 2), 380 ; 6 amble Man. 657. B. nervosa, Madden in Journ. 

 As. Soc. Beng. xvii, pt. 1, 587. Vern. Geti, genthi (Dehra Dun). 



A small or medium-sized evergreen tree ; young parts and under surface 

 of leaves hoary ; branches terete ; bark brown, deeply fissured. 

 Leaves alternate, coriaceous, 3-5 in. long, elliptic -lanceolate, acuminate, 

 crenulate, rugulose and dark-green above, paler or velvety pubescent 

 beneath strongly 3-nerved, the intervening veins and veinlets con- 

 spicuously anastomosing ; petiole J-l in. long ; stipules ovate, connate. 

 Flowers dioecious, in sessile globose clusters forming simple axillary 

 spikes 3-8 in. long, each cluster in the axil of a cordate bract. 



Dehra Dun, in shady ravines and eastwards along the Sub-Himalayan 

 tracts. Flowers in the rainy season. DISTRIB. : Outer Himalayan 

 ranges from the Sutlej to Bhutan, ascending to 4,000 ft. ; also in. 

 Upper Burma. 



