434 LXVII. urticace^:. [Uh 



30 ft. and more. Bark brown, surface whitish between deep dark-coloured longi- 

 tudinal regular furrows, running diagonally into each other. Straight woody 

 spines (the base of dead branches) often project from the wood into the bark. 

 The wood is valued more than that of the large-leaved elm (If. Wallichiana.) 



6. U. parvifolia, Jacq. PI. Ear. Hort. Schoenbrunn. t. 262. Syn. U. 

 virgata, Eoxb. El. Ind. ii. 67 ; Wall. PI. As. rar. t. 290. 



A slow-growing shrub or tree, branchlets pubescent. Leaves coria- 

 ceous, smooth, glabrous, oblong-lanceolate, short-petiolate, 2-4 in. long, 

 serrate, main lateral nerves branching, 14-16 pair. Flowers reddish, ap- 

 pearing with the leaves, male and fertile mixed, in lateral scaly fascicles, 

 lower part of pedicel pubescent, much longer than the glabrous upper part 

 (above the articulation). Perianth campanulate, glabrous, segments 4, 

 obtuse, ciliate. Stamens 4. Samara obliquely oval, glabrous, short-stipi- 

 tate, seed in the middle, wings reticulate. 



Kamaon, Sikkim, 4000-5000 ft., Bhutan, Burma, China, Japan. Introduced 

 into the Bot. Garden, Calcutta, from China. The bark peels off like that of the 

 Plane tree (C. Koch, Dendrol, ii. 423). Fl. Sept. (Nagasaki), Nov. (Calcutta), 

 Sept., Oct. (Vienna), May, June (C. Koch). In Japan planted in hedges. Pro- 

 bably evergreen, or leafless only for a short time. U. virgata. Wall. Cat. No. 

 3548 : DC. Prodr. xviii. 159, from Nepal, is a doubtful species. 



Order LXVIII. PLATANE^l. 



Trees with flaking bark, alternate palmatifid leaves, caducous stipules 

 and monoicous achlamydeous flowers collected in unisexual globose pen- 

 dulous heads, intermingled with squamiform bracteoles. Male heads: 

 consisting of numerous clcsely congested short stamens and minute some- 

 what fleshy paleaceous scales j filaments very short ; anthers 2- celled, de- 

 hiscing longitudinally. Female heads : of numerous ovaries approximated 

 in pairs immersed in scales similar to those of the male heads ; ovary 1- 

 celled, with 1 (or 2) pendulous ovules ; style subulate-filiform, laterally 

 stigmatose. Fruit a small 1 -seeded nut, crowned by the persistent style, 

 and surrounded by rigid setae. Albumen 0, or very thin. 



1. PLATANUS, Tourn. 

 (Only genus, the characters those of the Order. ) 



1. P. orientalis, Linn. ; Sibth. Fl. Graac. t. 945. Oriental Plane. Vern. 

 China? (the Persian name). Local names : Buin, buna, boin, Kashmir. 



A large deciduous tree, with grey flexuose branches, woolly buds, 

 young leaves and current year's shoots with soft, tawny, or ferruginous 

 tomentum. Leaves glabrous, along nerves pubescent beneath, palminerved, 

 deeply 3-5 lobed, lobes lanceolate, entire or dentate, 6-9 in. diam., petiole 

 3-5 in. long, pubescent, with a broad striated thickened base. On young 

 luxuriant shoots the leaves often have a cuneate base, and the stipules are 

 foliaceous and lobed. Fruit-heads globose, 1-1 J in. diam., on short pedicels, 

 on drooping axillary peduncles 4-6 in. long. 



Cultivated in Afghanistan and the North-West Himalaya, particularly in th 

 Kashmir valley (5300 ft.), east to the Bias and Sutlej, ascending to 8300 ft, 





