Tamarix.] IX. TAMARISCINE^E. 21 



amplexicaul, membranous. Disc shallow, 10-crenate. Capsule attenuated 

 from ovoid base, ^ in. long, when ripe more than twice the length of the 

 withered sepals which enclose its base. Petals generally deciduous. 



Throughout the Panjab and Sindh. In Tibet at 11,000 ft. Yarkand (Hen- 

 derson), Bengal, the Peninsula, and Ceylon. This species has a wide range it 

 is found in Afghanistan, Persia, the countries round the Mediterranean, Africa, 

 in Siberia, China, and Japan. In India, mostly on sand or gravel, along the 

 banks of rivers and near the sea- coast ; often on soil impregnated with salt ; 

 associated with Salvadora. Fl. July, August. Seed ripe Dec.-Feb. Grows 

 moderately quick when young, the stems often attaining 10-12 in. girth in 10-12 

 years, but soon reaches maturity, and decays early, stems over 15 in. girth being 

 generally hollow, especially in dry tracts with sandy soil. Easily propagated 

 from seed and cuttings. 



A shrub or small tree, attaining a girth of 3 and height of 30 ft. Stems 

 crooked, dividing into numerous branches, which are more ramified than those 

 of T. dioica. Branchlets feathery and often drooping. Bark of young branches 

 reddish brown, smooth, with small whitish specks, that of stem and larger 

 branches thin, greenish brown, rough with darker cross-lines. Foliage bright 

 dark-green or glaucous. Flowers usually white in North India, pink in South 

 Europe, Ladak, and Tibet. 



Wood whitish, occasionally with a red tinge, open and coarse-grained, fairly 

 hard and tough, but not strong. Medullary rays numerous, broad but short. 

 Annual rings distinct. Its chief use is to supply fuel for steamers and other- 

 wise ; in Sindh and South Panjab agricultural implements are made of it, and it 

 is used for turning and lacquered work. 



It is with some diffidence that I follow Wight & Arnott in identifying this 

 Tamarisk with T. gallica, Linn. But without further study of these variable 

 shrubs on the spot,' it appeared to me that I had no alternative. The figure in 

 Sibthorp's Flora Grseca, tab. 291, of T. gallica, seems to me to represent the 

 ordinary form of the Indian species ; but this is referred by Boissier, Fl. Orient. 

 i. 773, to T. Pallasii, Desv., from Afghanistan, Beluchistan, and Bokhara, with 

 smaller flowers, the disc deeply cleft into 5 emarginate lobes ; petals persistent 

 to the ripening of the capsule. 



2. T. dioica, Eoxb. Tab. VI. Roxb. Fl. Ind. ii. 101 j W. & A. 

 Prodr. 40 ; Hook. Fl. Ind. _i. 249 j Boissier Fl. Orient, i. 777. Sans. 

 Pichula. Vern. Leinya, koan, kachlei, pilchi, Pb.; Gaz, lao,jau, Sindh; 

 Lai Jhau, Beng. 



A shrub. Leaves minute, closely adpressed, sheathing, sheath tubular, 

 apex deltoid, acuminate, green, with a broad white margin. Flowers 

 dioecious, pentamerous, purple or light rose-tinged, in compact cylindrical 

 spikes, either terminal or clustering at the ends of branches into loose 

 racemose panicles ; lateral spikes stalked. Bracts as long, or nearly as 

 long as flowers, broad-ovate from a sheathing base, acuminate, membranous, 

 reddish brown with white margin. Male flowers : stamens 5, inserted on 

 the 5-lobed fleshy disc, alternate with the lobes ; no rudiment of ovary. 

 Female flowers : stamens abortive. Capsule oblong, tapering, -J- in. long, 

 surrounded by the withered sepals and petals, and about twice their length. 



Throughout Northern India, ascending to 2500 ft. in the Outer Himalaya. 

 In the plains along the Jumna and Ganges, abundant on the Hooghly in Bengal, 

 also on the Brahmaputra and in the Peninsula. Grows gregariously like T. 



