Andrachne.] LXIX. EUPHORBIACEiE. 457 



A shrub with slender branches, in places only an undershrub, extremi- 

 ties, petioles, and under side of leaves hairy. Leaves ovate-oblong, obtuse, 

 penniveined, blade 1-2 in., petiole filiform, J-f in. long. Flowers monoic- 

 ous, axillary, on long filiform pedicels. Disc of male flowers consisting 

 of 5 flat bifid glands. Styles shortly connate at the base, deeply bifid. 

 Capsule J in. across. 



Common in the North- West Himalaya from the Indus to Nepal, ascending 

 to 8000 ft. (Dippi forest). Fl. May-Sept. 



A. telephioides, Linn., is a small undershrub of the Mediterranean region and 

 West Asia, found also in the Panjab Salt range, with ovate or obovate leaves. 

 A. aspera, Sprengel, has reniform or orbicular leaves and grows from Egypt to 

 Sindh. 



Order LXX. BETULACE^S. 



Trees with scaly buds and alternate penniveined simple leaves ; stipules 

 deciduous. Flowers monoicous in drooping catkins. Male flowers : 

 bracts stalked, often peltate, bearing on the stalk and on their inner face 

 2-3 generally tetrandrous flowers with small perianths of membranous, 

 often unequal scales. Anthers 2 -celled, cells often distinct. Female 

 flowers : 2 or 3 in the axils of (generally) 3, more or less connate bracts ; 

 perianth none. Ovary free, compressed, 2-celled, 1 pendulous ovule in 

 each cell. Fruit a small 1 -seeded nut. Seeds without albumen ; cotyle- 

 dons flat, radicle superior. The cotyledons of the germinating embryo 

 are raised above the ground. 



Anther-cells distinct ; scales of female catkin deciduous . . . 1. Betula. 

 Anther-cells more or less connate ; scales of female catkin persistent, 



enlarged and woody in fruit .2. Alnus. 



1. BETULA, Tournefort. 



Deciduous trees with serrate leaves, resinous dots beneath. Anthers 

 8-12 inserted on the inside or stalk of the bract, more or less distinctly 

 arranged in tetrandrous flowers, each anther opposite to a membranous 

 scale ; anther-cells distinct. Female flowers, 3 in the axil of each bract. 

 Bracts of catkin deciduous in fruit, generally membranous. Fruit with a 

 membranous wing on 2 sides. 



Female catkins single ; bracts in fruit indurated, deeply 3-lobed, 



broader than wings ; wings narrower than fruit . . 1. B. Bliojpattra. 



Female catkins fasciculate ; bracts in fruit membranous, linear- 

 oblong, with 2 small teeth or lobes at the base, narrower than 

 wings ; wings much broader than fruit . . . . 2. B. acuminata. 



1. B. Bhojpattra,* Wall. Syn. B. Jacquemontii, Spach. ; Jacq. Voy. 



* I retain Wallich's name Bhojpattra (PL As. Rar. ii. 7, 1831), which is adopted by 

 Lindley, Bot. Reg., and Regel (Monographia Betulacearum, 1861, and DC. Prodr. xvi. 

 ii. 177), though it seems certain that Don's B. utilis (Prodr. Fl. Nep. 58, 1825) was in- 

 tended for this tree. But Don's description, " foliis ovatis acuminatis insequaliter ser- 



