Carissa.] LIV. APOCYNE.E. 321 



Bingah Sal forests (R. Thompson), in the Gorakhpur district, in Bengal and 

 South India. Foliage generally renewed in March. Fl. Jan.-April ; fruit ripens 

 July- Aug. Grows rapidly, and coppices freely. 



Stem 3-4 ft. high, 2 ft. girth, sometimes more, branches rigid, divergent, 

 forming a scanty rounded crown. Branchlets reddish-brown, smooth, spread- 

 ing. Bark % in. thick, grey or white with pale-orange streaks, smoothish be- 

 tween longitudinal wrinkles, with brown exfoliating scales. Wood white, close- 

 grained and hard, is an excellent fuel, and has been recommended for turning. 

 Makes excellent fences. The red, half-ripe fruit is made into tarts jellies and 

 pickle. When ripe, it is sold in bazaars and eaten largely. 



2. C. diffusa, Koxb. Fl. Ind. i. 689; Wight Ic. t. 427. Vera. Karaunda. 

 Local n. Gdn, garna, garinda, Pb. 



A small evergreen shrub, with rigid, spreading branches ; young leaves, 

 branchlets and inflorescence pubescent. Branchlets opposite and single, 

 spines J-l in. long, often pubescent and forked, generally at the base of 

 the single branches. Leaves coriaceous, glabrate or pubescent beneath, 

 ovate, acute, nmcronate, 1-1 J in. long, J-j in. broad, generally with 1 or 

 2 pairs of arching basal nerves. Flowers pure white to delicate pink, 

 finely odorous, on short pedicels in sessile or pedunculate cymose corymbs 

 of 2-10 flowers, at the ends of branches. Bracts linear, pubescent. Calyx 

 pubescent, cleft nearly to the base into lanceolate ciliate segments. Cor- 

 olla-lobes lanceolate, shorter than tube, but more than half its length. 

 Ovules 2 in each cell of the ovary. Berry subglobose, \ in. long, 4-seeded, 

 shining, black when ripe, seeds 4. 



Abundant wild in most parts of India, in the plains of the Panjab, the sub- 

 Himalayan tract, ascending to 4000 ft., and in the trans-Indus territory, gene- 

 rally gregarious, here and there forming underwood in forests of Bamboo in the 

 Siwalik tract, of Pinus longifolia (Kangra), of Teak (Saugor district). Useful 

 by keeping the ground moist and cool under trees with light foliage which do 

 notthrow heavy shade ; may be employed in the same way as Beech underwood 

 under Oak or Scotch Fir in Europe. Spreads readily where clearings have 

 been made, and may in such cases impede the reproduction and growth of the 

 forest. Fl. March-May ; fruit ripens Oct.- Feb. Very hardy, coppices freely. 

 The wood, though always small, is used for turning and for making combs ; it 

 is an excellent fuel. Very old wood is said (in Kangra) to be black and fra- 

 grant. The leaves are greedily eaten by goats and sheep, but the chief use of 

 the shrub is to furnish material for dry fences. 



The characters available for the distinction of these two species are unsatisfac- 

 tory and variable, and farther inquiries may possibly show G. Carandas to be 

 nothing but the cultivated form of C. diffusa. 



2. CERBERA, Linn. 



Shrubs or trees, with alternate leaves, crowded on the young branches. 

 Flowers large, in terminal corymbose cymes. Calyx without glands. 

 Corolla-tube cylindrical, without scales, lobes spreading, angular, contorted 

 in bud. Anthers included in the corolla-tube, inserted about the middle. 

 Ovary of 2 distinct carpels, united by a single style, each carpel incom- 

 pletely divided by a very prominent placenta, bearing 2 superposed ovules 

 on each side ; stigma conical, often 2-lobed at the tip. Fruit (from the 



X 



