Ficus.] URTICACEM. 149 



spreading, pubescent, sometimes 3-fid. when young. MALE FLOWERS 

 few, near the mouth of the receptacle. Sepals 4, lanceolate. Stamen 

 1. GALL FLOWERS : Sep. 4, shorter than the smooth ovary ; style 

 short. FERTILE FLOWERS : Sep. as in the gall flowers ; style elongate. 

 Achenes tuberculate. 



Forests of Bundelkhand. The fruit ripens during the hot season. 

 DISTRIB. : Southwards from Behar and Chota Nagpur through Central 

 W. and S. India, also in the drier tracts of Ceylon. It is very 

 destructive to buildings if allowed to encroach as an epiphyte. 

 The fruit is much eaten by birds. 



4 F. retusa, Linn. Mantiss. 129 ; Brandis For. Fl. 417 ; Ind. 



Trees 603 ; King Sp. Ficus 60, t. 61 and t. 84 ; F. B. I. V., 511 ; 

 Watt E. D. ; Gamble Man. 643 ; Prain Beng. PL 980 ; CooJce FL 

 Bomb, ii, 647. Vern Ndndan. 



A large or moderate-sized evergreen glabrous tree, often epiphytic ; 

 aerial roots few ; bark dark-grey, smooth. Leaves coriaceous, shortly 

 stalked, 2-3 in. long and nearly as broad, elliptic ovate or obovate, 

 rounded or shortly and bluntly acuminate at the apex, polished and 

 shining ; base narrowed into the petiole, 3-nerved ; main lateral 

 nerves 5-6 pairs above the basal ones, not more prominent than the 

 secondary ones, reticulately veined between ; petiole - in., stipules 

 lanceolate, -| in. Receptacles about J in. in diam., sessile in pairs, 

 -axillary or from the scars of fallen leaves, depressed-globose, smooth, 

 yellow or reddish when ripe ; basal bracts 3, spreading broadly ovate, 

 blunt, persistent. MALE FLOWERS many, scattered, sessile or shortly 

 stalked. Sepals 3, subspathulate. Stamen 1, filament as long as the 

 cordate apiculate anther. GALL FLOWERS sessile or nearly so. Sepals 

 3, oblong or broadly spathulate. Style short. FERTILE FLOWERS 

 usually sessile. Sepals 3, much shorter than those of the gall flowers. 

 Style short ; stigma cylindric or clavate. Achenes ovoid or obovoid 



Bundelkhand (Edgeworth, Duthie), often on rocks. DISTRIB. : Chota 

 Nagpur and Behar and from Cent. W. and S. India to Ceylon ; also 

 in the Sundribuns and in the Andaman and Malay Islands, extend- 

 ing to Australia. This tree, when cultivated, affords an abundance 

 of cool shade and might be used more generally than it now is as a 

 roadside tree and in the formation of groves. Gamble states that 

 the wood in moderately hard and might be used for making furniture. 

 The small figs, are much eaten by pigeons. 



VAR. nitida, King Sp. Ficus 51, it. 62 and 84 fig. P. ; F. B. I. F., 511 ; 

 Kanjilal For. Fl. (ed. 2), 370 ; Prain Beng. PL 980. F. nitida, Thunb* 



