40 



N. Ord. LINAGES. 



Tribe Erythroxyle*. Lindl., Veg. K., p. 391 (N. Ord.) ; Le Maout 

 and Dec., p. 294. 



Genus Erythroxylon,* Linn. B. & H., Gen., i, p. 244; Baill., 

 Hist. PL, v, p. 65. Species about 50, mostly natives of 

 S. America, but some of Africa and India. 



40. Erythroxylon Coca,t Lamarck, Diet, ii, p . 393 (1786). 

 Coca. Cochuco. Hayo. Ipadu. 



Figures. Cavanilles, Diss., t. 229; Compend. Bot. Mag., ii, t. 21; 

 Le Maout & Dec., p. 295 ; Baill., Hist., pi. v, figs. 80-87. 



Description. A small shrub of 2 4 feet or more high, bushy 

 and much branched, with a purplish-brown wrinkled bark, the 

 young twigs smooth. Leaves closely placed, alternate, shortly- 

 stalked, 1 2 inches long, lanceolate or oval, rather attenuated 

 into the petiole, usually blunt and emarginate with a small apiculus 

 in the notch at the apex, perfectly entire, soon falling, rather thin, 

 bright green above, paler and glaucous beneath, quite glabrous, 

 midrib prominent, lateral veins numerous, faint, freely anasto- 

 mosing on either side of the midrib as far as a well-defined, 

 curved, raised line less than midway between it and the margin of 

 the leaf and extending from base to apex, the surface is some- 

 what concave, paler in colour and with the veins less prominent; 

 stipules small, cauline, combined along their inner edge to form a 

 single, triangular, acute, denticulate organ between the petiole 

 and the stem (intrapetiolar), very persistent, at first thin, greenish 

 and transparent, afterwards, when the leaves 'have fallen, brown, 

 stiff, and almost spinous, and marked on the back at the base by 

 the scar of the petiole. Flowers small, on slender, drooping, 

 glabrous stalks about J inch long, 3 or 4 together in the axils of 

 the leaves or of the persistent stipules, with several small broad 

 bracts at the base. Calyx very deeply cut into 5 triangular-ovate, 



* Name from ipvOpoc, red, and v\oi/, wood ; applicable to some species, 

 f Coca, the native name ; meaning the " tree " or " plant " par excellence. 



