Zizyphus.] XXV. BHAKENEJ5, 89 



globose, Jin. diam., red, glabrous, shining when ripe; kernel rugose, 2- celled, 

 with a hard osseous shell. 



Common throughout North-West India and the drier parts of South India 

 above the Ghats ; not known from Bengal and Burma. Gregarious, covers 

 extensive tracts in the Panjab, Sindh, Eajputana, and the Dekkan. Ascends 

 to 3000 ft. on the eastern flanks of the Suliman range and in the outer Himal- 

 aya. Flourishes best in a heavy clay or loam ; is abundant in the black soil of 

 the Dekkan. South-West Persia. 



Z. nummularia is always a bush, usually 6-8 ft. high, rarely attaining 15 ft., 

 forming irregular rounded masses of thorns, with numerous clustered stems, and 

 suckers thrown up from the roots. The bark of stems and main branches is 

 grey, rugose ; the foliage has a dull greyish-green colour. It is never leafless 

 the old leaves generally shed early in the hot weather, and the new leaves 

 appear immediately afterwards. Fl. March-June, and the fruit ripens from 

 November-January. The principal use of this species is to make fences round 

 fields and gardens ; the leaves are thrashed out and used as fodder for sheep 

 and goats ; the fruit is eaten, is sweet and acidulous, and has a pleasant flavour. 

 During the famine of 1869, which drove large numbers of the inhabitants of 

 Marwar and other parts of western Eajputana from their homes, the fruit of 

 this bush served as food to thousands. In the winter '69-' 70, the crop of these 

 berries had been plentiful ; and when I marched through Eajputana, from 

 Agra to Guzerat, in Dec. 1869 and Jan. 1870, I found the shrubs completely 

 stripped of their fruit wherever the flocks of hungry emigrants from Marwar had 

 passed through ; and it was only further south, on approaching Neemuch and 

 Guzerat, where the Marwar emigrants had been less numerous, that I found the 

 shrubs laden with fruit. 



Of the Zizyphi outside India, Z. Lotus, Lam. ; Boiss. 1. c. 12 ; a small shrub 

 from Northern Africa, comes nearest to this. Like nmnmularia, Z. Lotus has 

 an eatable fruit, which is an important article of food in Tunis and Barbary. It 

 throws up abundant suckers from the root, and the description given in 

 Mathieu's Flore Forestiere de la France, p. 50 " Parfois l'abord de cet arbris- 

 seau (in Algeria) est rendu presque impossible par 1' entourage serre des drageons 

 epineux qu'il a produits " would apply well to Z. nummularia. But the Afri- 

 can shrub is almost quite glabrous, and the two styles are united nearly to the 

 top. There is much variation in the species of Zizyphus as to pubescence, and 

 the degree to which the styles are united ; but, on the other hand, there does 

 not yet seem sufficient ground for uniting Z. nummularia and Z. Lotus. It 

 should be added that there are forms of Z. nummularia which are exceed- 

 ingly similar to frutescent specimens of Z. Jujuba. 



6. Z. rugosa, Lam.; W. & A. Prodr. 162; Wight Ic. t. 339. Syn. 

 Z. latifolia, Eoxb. Fl. Ind. i. 607. Vern. Dhaura, dhauri, Baraich and 

 Gonda in Oudh ; Suran, Churna, C.P. ; Turan, Bomb. 



A straggling shrub or small tree; young branches, inflorescence, prickles, 

 and under side of leaves generally covered with a dense ferruginous tomen- 

 tum, rarely glabrous. Branches armed with broad, laterally compressed, 

 strong, hooked prickles, mostly solitary. Leaves on petioles J in. long, 

 with 3 or 4, rarely 5, nerves from base, and prominent lateral nerves, ovate 

 or elliptic from an oblique, often cordate base ; 2-5 in. long. Cymes large, 

 on long peduncles, axillary and terminal, forming a large compound, 

 generally drooping thyrsus. Lobes of calyx outside tomentose, inside with 



