Axinandra.] LytkraceCB. 23 I 



Also in Bengal, Burma, Siam, Java. 



Wood white, soft, light, but fine-grained. 



The curious erect root-branches are figured by Karsten in his ' Man- 

 grove Vegetation,' t. 10, f. 139; they were first described by Rumph (Herb. 

 Amb. iii. 112). As they attain 18 in. to 3 ft. in height, and 3 in. in 

 diameter, and have a soft, firm, even texture, they form a fine substitute 

 for cork, and are cut into slices and used for entomologists' boxes and 

 other purposes. Their wood is very much lighter than that of the stem. 

 (See Dr. Templeton, of Ceylon, in Trans. Ent. Soc. iii. 302.) 



7. AXINANDRA, Thw. 



A tree ; 1. opp., entire ; fl. very small in short racemes ; 

 cal.-tube shallowly campanulate, completely adnate to ov., 

 limb spreading, segm. 5; pet. 5, connate into a deciduous cap 

 (calyptra) ; stam. 10, inserted in two rows at mouth of cal.- 

 tube, fil. very short, dilated, anth. with a very large connective 

 much produced behind ; ov. completely inferior, 6-celled, with 



1 ovule in each cell, style very short ; fruit a woody capsule, 

 the lower half fused with enlarged cal.-tube, loculicidally 

 dehiscent in the upper part by 2-4 valves ; seeds oblong, 

 much compressed, with a long wing at upper end. — Sp. 5 ; 



2 in Fl. B. Ind., but none in Peninsular India. 



This anomalous genus is included by Baillon in Melastomacea 

 {Memecylece), and he is followed by Cogniaux. It has points of alliance 

 also with Rhizophoracece (Legfiotidece). 



A. zeylanica, Thw. in Kew Journ. Bot. vi. 66 (1854). X&gkiri- 

 wara. S. 



Cogn. Mon. Melast. 11 13. Thw. Enum. 122. C. P. 2668. 



Fl. B. Ind. ii. 581. Kew Journ. Bot. vi. t. Ic. Bedd. Fl. Sylv. t. 207. 



A tree reaching a large size, but usually about 30 ft., with 

 a very straight trunk and numerous short drooping branches 

 almost to the base, bark smooth, pale brown, branchlets 

 thickened at nodes, nearly cylindrical, twigs with 4 stipular 

 wings broad and leafy at the summit of each internode 

 decurrent and gradually narrowing to base of internode 

 which is quite cylindrical; 1. large, 7-10 in., on a very short 

 stout petiole, lanceolate- or ovate-oblong, subcordate at base, 

 acuminate, acute, rather thick and coriaceous, glabrous, dark 

 green above, paler beneath, veins very strongly marked, 

 pellucid, depressed above, prominent beneath, lat. ones very 

 numerous, uniting with a strong intramarginal one at a short 

 distance from the edge; fl. very small, ped. about as long as 

 cal., in lax, slender, stalked axillary and terminal racemes 

 shorter than 1. and sometimes paniculate with opposite 

 divaricate branches, bracts linear, as long as ped.; cal. gla- 



