Sonneraiia.] LythracecB. 229 



spreading ped. thickened upwards and articulated below the 

 middle, where are 2 small opp. bractlets, panicle large, \\-2 ft., 

 stout, erect, with spreading branches, bracts small, buds pyri- 

 form, truncate; cal.-tube with 12 vertical grooves, mealy- 

 pubescent, segm. long-triangular, acute, spreading, rather 

 shorter than tube; pet. I— if in., rotundate, leaf-like, with a 

 stout petiole-like claw, veiny, much undulate and crumpled, 

 spreading, margin slightly erose; fil. under 1 in.; ov. glabrous; 

 fruit I in., broadly ovoid, about \ concealed by persistent, 

 cup-like cal., very hard and woody, apiculate, smooth, valves 

 remaining connected by their bases ; seed with wing \ in., 

 glabrous, pale brown. 



Moist low country up to 2000 ft., especially by rivers and streams ; 

 rather common. Fl. April-July ; deep or light mauve, or bright rose- 

 coloured. 



Also in India, Malaya, and China, but often cultivated. 



A magnificent tree when in full flower ; it is deciduous and bare of 

 leaves for a very short time. Wood light brownish-red, hard, not heavy, 

 very useful. 



Though Hermann knew this tree, he preserved no specimen in his 

 herbarium ; hence it was left unnamed by Linnaeus among the ' Barbaras' 

 Fl. Zeyl. n. 533). 



6. SOKNERATIA,*;../ 



Shrubs or trees; 1. opp., entire, thick; fl. large, solitary 

 or 3, terminal ; cal. coriaceous, tube campanulate, slightly 

 adnate to base of ov., segm. 4 or 6; pet. 6 or o; stam. very 

 numerous, inserted within rim of cal.-tube, fil. very long ; 

 ov. almost entirely superior, many-celled, with numerous 

 ovules in each cell, style long, stigma capitate ; fruit large, 

 hard-fleshy, indehiscent, supported on persistent cal., many- 

 seeded ; seeds small, angular, embryo bent. — Sp. 5 ; 3 in 

 Fl. B. Ind. 



Pet. o. 



Tree; cal.-segm. 4 1. S. APETALA. 



Shrub ; cal.-segm. 6 2. S. alba. 



Pet. 6 3. S. ACIDA. 



i. S. apetala, Ham. in Symes, Emb. Ava, iii. 313 (1800). 



Trim, in Journ. Lot. xxvii. 163. 



Fl. B. Ind. ii. 579 (not given for Ceylon). Syrnes, Emb. Ava, t. 25. 



An erect tree, attaining 40 ft., with slender drooping 

 branches ; 1. 2I-4I in., narrowly oblong-lanceolate, much 



* Commemorates P. Sonnerat, who figures S. acida in his 'Voyage a 

 \i Nouv. Guinee, : 1776. 



