Tetranthera,'] LXII. LAURINE.E. 381 



Abundant in the Oudh forests, sparingly on the Satpura range, not uncom- 

 mon in Kamaon and Garhwal. Siwaliks and sub-Himalayan tract west to 

 the Kavi, ascending to 3200 ft. Salt range to 3000 ft. Extends farther north 

 than T. laurifolia. Bengal, Burma (everywhere in the plains and the valleys 

 of the principal rivers). South India, Ceylon, Indian Archipelago. Fl. March- 

 May, the leaves are renewed about the same time ; the fruit ripens June-July. 

 Generally found in ravines on the banks of streams, or on rich deep soil. 



Attains 30-40 ft., trunk short, erect, 4-6 ft. girth, generally hollow when old. 

 Bark dark grey, smooth, but scabrous with elevated white dots, the older parts 

 with reticulate cracks, exfoliating in corky scales. The leaves are often beset 

 with round hollow galls or excrescences. Pith large, wood whitish, pale yellow 

 or brown, heartwood distinct, darker coloured (R. Th.) Is used for ordinary 

 agricultural or domestic purposes. The bark has an astringent and somewhat 

 aromatic taste, and is used in native medicine. The leaves when bruised have 

 a smell of cinnamon ; silkworms are fed with them. 



T. Doshia, Don Fl. Nep. 65. Syn. T. oblonga, Wall. ; Cylicodaphne ob- 

 longa, Meissner ; DC. Prodr. xv. i. 205 ; Lepidadenia Griffithii, Wight Ic. t. 

 1846, is an evergreen tree with oblong-lanceolate glabrous leaves, 6-9 in. long, 

 flower-heads on long slender pedicels in sessile or short-pedunculate axillary 

 corymbs ; berries half immersed in the cup-shaped persistent perianth. Nepal, 

 Assam, Malay peninsula, Canara. 



Dodecadenia grandiflora, Nees ; DC. Prodr. xv. i. 210, is a tree with penni- 

 veined lanceolate glabrous leaves, with fine prominent reticulation, and large 

 solitary (or twin) subsessile axillary flowers, surrounded by numerous imbri- 

 cate pubescent bud-scales, berry ovoid, \ in. long, supported by the flat, persis- 

 tent base of the perianth. Kamaon, East Himalaya. 



Actinodaphne is a large genus nearly allied to Dodecadenia and Tetranthera. 

 The flowers are in lateral clusters, generally pedicellate, enclosed (in bud), by 

 imbricate bracts. The leaves are penniveined, whorled at the ramifications and 

 at the ends of branches, and the branchlets are mostly whorled likewise. A. 

 Hookeri, Meissner ; Bedd. Fl. Sylv. t. 296 Syn. A . lanceolata, Dalz. Bombay 

 Fl. 312, is a large shrub, with ovate or ovate-lanceolate leaves, glabrous, dark 

 green and shining above, glaucous beneath, young shoots and petioles rusty- 

 tomentose, common along the Western Ghats of Canara and Sattara, and 

 particularly abundant in the Mahableshwar forest, also found by Beddome in 

 the North Arcot and Cadapah forests. A. angustifolia, Nees ; Wight Ic. t. 

 1841, similar in habit to the preceding, but the leaves rusty-tomentose beneath. 

 Courtallum, Nilgiris, East Bengal, Burma, where it is common in the evergreen 

 forest-patches of the Pegu Yomah and other hills (Shwoaygjo and Nalingjo, 

 Brum.) 



6. LITS^IA, Juss. 



Trees or shrubs with alternate leaves, often whorled and crowded at 

 the ends of branches, usually penniveined ; main lateral nerves not 

 numerous, and the lowest pair often proceeding from near the base and 

 more prominent, so as to make the leaves appear triplinerved. Flowers 

 dioicous, pedicellate, in sessile or nearly sessile lateral clusters, surround- 

 ed by deciduous bracts which are imbricate in bud. Perianth -segments 

 usually 4. Stamens of the male flower usually 4 in the outer, and 2 in the 

 inner circle, all perfect, anthers 4-celled, introrse, the lower pair of anther- 

 cells often lateral ; a pair of glands at the base of each of the two inner 



