344 RublCLCece. \Canthium. 



A large or moderate-sized tree, bark thin, blackish, flaking 

 off in small pieces, branchlets numerous, stout, thickened at 

 nodes, without spines, twigs quadrangular-compressed, gla- 

 brous; 1. \\-2\ in., rotundate, rounded at both ends, more or 

 less revolute at margin, very stiff and coriaceous, quite gla- 

 brous, veins few, reticulate, prominent beneath, petiole 

 extremely short and stout, stip. short, broad, with a stout 

 mucronate apex ; fi. on long ped., cymes umbellate on stout 

 peduncles ; cal.-segm. short, broad, apiculate, cor. -lobes 5, as 

 long as tube, acute, reflexed ; stam. exserted ; drupe f in., 

 ovoid, very slightly didymous. 



Var. [3, minus, Thw. I. c. C. P. 1685. 



L. smaller, somewhat oval ; fl. a little larger, ped. strongly 

 reflexed after flowering. 



Forests of the montane zone from 4000-7000 ft.; rather common. 

 Fl. Dec. to April ; green. 



Endemic. 



The wood is very hard, heavy, and fine-grained, and, like others in 

 the hills, is called, incorrectly, ' Wal-burutu ' by the up-country sawyers. 

 It has been used for railway sleepers. 



3. C puberulum, Thw. in Fl. B. Ind. iii. 134 (i{ 

 C. P. 3995- 



A shrub, with virgate branches armed with sharp, supra- 

 axillary spreading spines, pubescent when young, and with 

 numerous short, suppressed branchlets ; 1. small, \-\ in., 

 fasciculate on the suppressed branchlets, oval or oblong-oval, 

 acute at both ends, slightly pubescent above, more so beneath, 

 petiole short, slender, stip. small, hairy, with a filiform apex ; 

 fi. very small, on rather long pubescent ped. with 2 bractlets 

 near the base, 1-3 on very short peduncles; cal. hairy, segm. 

 long, linear-lanceolate, very acute, recurved ; cor. -tube shorter 

 than cal., pubescent, lobes acute, recurved ; fruit not seen. 



'Central Province' (Fl. B. Ind.). There is no locality attached to the 

 specimens in the Peradeniya Herbarium, which were collected in 1869. 

 I have seen no others. 



4. C. Rheedii, DC. Prod. iv. 474 (1830). 



Thw. Enum. 153. W. and A. Prod. 426. C. P. 1666. 

 Fl. B. Ind. iii. 134. Rheede, Hort. Malab. v. t. 37. 



Asmall,much-branched bush, branchlets divaricate, roughly 

 pubescent, usually armed with straight or slightly curved, sharp, 

 supra-axillary spines \-\ in. long ; 1. 1-2 in., ovate, cordate or 

 rounded at base, acuminate, obtuse or subacute at apex, 

 glabrous, or with a few bristly hairs beneath on veins ; thin, 

 lat. veins rather prominent beneath, with glands in the axils ; 

 fl. small, solitary or few in small sessile cymes ; cal. -limb 



