260 LILIACEM. [ SMILAX. 



usually 2 tendrils above its base. Flowers small, dioecious, um- 

 bellate. Perianth of 6 free segments, incurved or recurved. MALE 

 flowers : Stamens 6 or more, free from the base of the perianth ; 

 anthers oblong, 2-celled, didymous, cells contiguous or separated 

 on a forked connective. Pistillode none. FEM. flowers : Stami- 

 nodes 6 or 3. Ovary 3-gonous, style short or none ; stigmas 3, 

 stout, recurved ; ovules 1 or 2 in each cell, orthotropous, pendulous. 

 Fruit a globose berry. Seeds solitary, globose, oftener 2 and hemis- 

 pheric, rarely 3 ; albumen horny, embryo small. Species about 

 d80, in temperate and tropical regions 



Umbels 2-3, very rarely more, alternate on a 

 common peduncle : 

 Petiole stout, always narrowly sheathing 



but not auriculate below the middle . 1. S. macrophylla. 

 Petiole rather slender, with 2 large, thickly 

 coriaceous, indistinctly reticulate auricles 



below the middle . . . . . 2. S. Roxburghiana. 

 Umbels 7-20, ternate or whorled on a common 

 peduncle ; petiole stout, with, in all except 

 the uppermost leaves, 2 large leaf -like dis- 

 tinctly reticulate auricles below the middle . 3. 8. prolifera. 



IS. macrophylla Roxl. ; Fl. Ind. Hi, 793 (no: of Willd.) ; 

 JF. B. I. vi, 310 ; Watt E. D. ; Prain Beng. PI. 1071 ; Kanjilal 

 For. Fl. (ed. 2) 407 ; Brandis Ind. Trees 641 ; Cooke Fl. Bomb, ii, 

 763. S. retusa, Rojrb Fl. Ind. Hi, 793. S. ovalifolia, Roxb. I. c. 

 794. Vern. Ramdatun 



.A large more or less prickly climber. Stems smooth, striate, armed 

 with a few small distant prickles or almost unarmed. Leaves alter- 

 nate, 3-8 in. long or sometimes much larger, broadly ovate or sub- 

 orbicular, acuminate or cuspidate, glabrous, shinning ; main nerves 

 usually 5, with reticulate venation between ; petioles J-l in. long, 

 stout, narrowly sheathing, but not auriculate below the middle, 

 tendrils very long and slender. Umbels 2-3, rarely more, alternate 

 on a common peduncle, many fld. ; peduncles ^-f in. long ; bracts 

 below the peduncles ovate, acute, ^-J in long ; pedicels of both male 

 and female flowers arising from a mass of numerous minute bracts. 

 MALE -flowers : Pedicels J in. Perianth -| in. long ; segments 

 linar, obtuse, erect when young, afterwards reflexed, the 3 outer 

 ones broader. Stamens about as long as the perianth. FEM. flowers : 

 Perianth as in male ; pedicels elongating in fruit. Berry about the 

 *ize of a large pea, smooth, green and turning to red when ripe. 



