Avicennia.] LX. VEKBENACEiE. 371 



10. AVICENNIA, Linn. 



1. A. officinalis, Linn. Syn. A. tomentosa, Jacq. ; Wight Ic. t. 1481 ; 

 Wall. PI. As. rar. t. 271. 



A small tree or large shrub, with thick fleshy branchlets and opposite 

 coriaceous, elliptic-lanceolate leaves. Flowers yellow, sessile, in rounded 

 heads. Calyx of 5 sepals, supported by ovate ciliate bracts. Corolla- 

 tube short, limb of 4 nearly equal segments. Capsule compressed, ovate, 

 mucronate, 2-valved, 1 -seeded. Eadicle woolly, cotyledons thick, fleshy, 

 folded. The seed often germinates on the tree. 



Salt marshes on the coasts of the peninsula, the Ked Sea, Africa, Burma, 

 Australia. Fl. April, May. 



Phytolacca acinosa, Roxb. Syn. Rivina Latbenia, Wall. ; Pircunia Lat- 

 benia, Moquin, DC. Prodr. xiii. ii. 29 ; Vern. Lubar, Hazara ; Jirka, Bias ; 

 Matazor, Sutlej (Order Phytolaccaceoe) ; is a large perennial plant, not uncom- 

 mon in the North-West Himalaya from Hazara to Nepal, between 3500 and 

 9000 ft., also in Sikkim and Bhutan, with alternate, short-petiolate, ovate-lan- 

 ceolate leaves, 6-10 in. long, and greenish white pedicellate bisexual flowers in 

 lax cylindrical racemes, with lanceolate or subulate bracts. Perianth of 5 

 nearly distinct segments. Stamens 8-10. Pistil of 6-8 distinct 1-ovuled carpels. 

 Fruit dark purple and succulent, the carpels remaining distinct, forming an 

 erect cylindrical raceme, 4-8 in. long, 1-llr in. diameter. Fl. June ; fr. Sept., 

 Oct. In some places the leaves are eaten as a vegetable, and it is cultivated in 

 Jaunsar (vern. Jerunga) and Kamaon. 



Phytolacca acinosa, Roxb., has been referred by Moquin, 1. c. 33, to P. de- 

 candra, Linn., as a variety; this, however, is a much larger plant, distinguished 

 from P. acinosa by 8-10 carpels, which, when ripe, are connate into a smooth 

 flat circular berry. Upon this character Moquin bases the generic distinction 

 between Phytolacca and his new genus Pircunia, with 6-8 carpels, which re- 

 main distinct when ripe. Roxburgh states (Fl. Ind. ii. 458) : " Berries com- 

 posed of from 6-8 distinct acini," and this description is supported by the un- 

 published illustration in Hb. Kew, No. 1556. P. decandra, Linn., like most 

 species of the genus, is indigenous in America, but has long been cultivated, and 

 become naturalised in South Europe. In France it is called raisin d'Amerique, 

 and the purple juice of the berries is used to colour wine and confectionery. 

 It is a matter for inquiry whether P. decandra grows in India and whether 

 the North-West Himalayan plant, which is found in the forest tracts of remote 

 valleys (e.g., Dippi and Kilba in Kunawar), is really indigenous in India. In 

 North America the root of P. decandra is used medicinally as an emetic, pur- 

 gative, and narcotic. 



P. dioica, Linn. (Pircunia dioica, Moq.), known as Bella JSombra, is a fast- 

 growing tree with thick-based trunk and soft coarse-grained fibrous wood, indi- 

 genous in La Plata and Brazil, grown (in avenues) in Spain, Gibraltar, Malta, 

 and introduced to Bombay and Calcutta. 



Order LXI. POLYGONE-ffi. 



Herbs or shrubs, rarely trees, with alternate simple stipulate leaves. 

 Stipules usually sheathing the stem (ochreate). Flowers small herma- 

 phrodite or unisexual. Perianth herbaceous or coloured, 3-6-lobed or 

 3-6-phyllous, lobes or leaves 1- or 2-seriate, equal or inner series larger. 



