300 SYSTEMATIC BOTANY 



three or five strong veins radiating from the base, and 

 covered when young, like the young twigs and petioles, 

 with soft yellowish pubescence. 



The flowers are in cymes or panicles, small, poly- 

 petalons. Sepals and petals five each, stamens many, 

 springing from a raised thalamus, ovary single with one 

 central style and small stigma. Fruit a drupe or capsule. 



It differs from the MALVACEAE and STERCULIACE^E 

 in the stamens being generally free, not combined into 

 a staminal tube, and springing from a slightly raised 

 thalamus, and in the linear, two-celled anthers. 



The Linden (or English ' Lime ') so often grown in 

 English gardens belongs to this family. 



On the hills the commonest examples of TILIACE^E 

 are perhaps the different species of * EL^EOCARPUS. 

 They are all trees with simple alternate leaves and can 

 usually be recognized at once by the flowers being in 

 axillary racemes and having fringed (or ' laciniate ') 

 petals, which give them a peculiar and unmistakable 

 appearance. * E. OBLONGUS, Gsertu. sometimes called 

 the Nilgiri olive, is planted in villages and near houses. 

 Its leaves turn a brilliant red colour before they fall. 

 In * E. FERRUGINEUS, Lot. the stamens number about 

 twenty and each anther is prolonged above a thin 

 awn. In other species they are more numerous, * E. 

 SERRATUS, L. and * E. CUNEATUS, Wt. have thirty or 

 forty, * E. TUBERCULATUS, Roxb. as many as seventy. 



BERRYA AMMONILLA, Roxb. is a useful timber tree. 

 Its wood known as Trincomallee wood, is of a dark 

 red colour, and being very tough and springy is used 

 for carts and for spear handles, and in the building 

 of masula boats. 



