354 Rubiacece. \Morinda. 



i. UK. tinctoria, Roxb. Hori. Beng. 15 (1814). Ahu, 5. Man- 

 chavanna, T. 



M. exserta, Roxb., Thw. Enum. 145. C. P. 1668. 



Fl. B. Ind. iii. 156. Bedd. Fl. Sylv. t. 220 {M. citrifolid). 



A usually small tree, bark thick, spongy, with deep longi- 

 tudinal furrows, branchlets thickened at nodes, l.-scars pro- 

 minent, twigs compressed, glabrous ; 1. 3-5 in., lanceolate, 

 tapering to base, acuminate, acute, glabrous save for tufts of 

 hair in axils of lat. veins beneath, dull green not shining, 

 petiole very short, stip. broadly triangular, acute, deciduous ; 

 fl. rather large, heads globose, peduncles long, solitary or 

 rarely 2-3 together ; cal.-tube about \ in., lobes 5, narrowly 

 oblong, more than half as long as tube ; head of fruit about 

 I in. diam., globose, fleshy, pyrenes usually 4, oblong. 



Dry region; rather common. Jaffna; Trincomalie; Anuradhapura ; 

 Badulla District (Thwaites). Fl. Sept., Oct.; white, very sweet-scented. 



Also in India and Malaya. 



Wood moderately hard and heavy, brownish-orange, durable. The 

 reddish-brown bark of the root affords a red dye, much used for dyeing 

 cloth, but the tree is not cultivated in Ceylon. The leaves are a remedy 

 for diarrhoea, and an external application to wounds. The plant dries a 

 dark metallic brown. 



2. XIX. citrifolia, L. Sp. PI. 176 (1753). Ahu, S. 



Fl. Zeyl. n. 82. Moon Cat. 15. M . bracteala, Roxb., Thw. Enum. 



144- C. P. 765. 



Fl. B. Ind. iii. 155. Wight, 111. t. 126 (M. bracteata). Rheede, Hort. 

 Malab. i. t. 52. 



A small tree, with yellowish-white bark, branchlets stout, 

 marked with l.-scars, twigs glabrous ; 1. closely placed, large, 

 6-8 in., oval, attenuate at base, shortly acuminate, acute, 

 glabrous, 1. shining, with glandular pits in axils of lat. veins 

 beneath, rather thick, bright apple-green, veins strongly 

 marked, prominent beneath, pellucid, petiole \ in., very stout, 

 stip. short, broad, obtuse, persistent; fl. as in the last, but 

 smaller ; cor. -lobes 5 ; head of fruit ovoid, over 1 in. long, very 

 fleshy, white, some of the enlarged cal. of the lowest fruits 

 developing large and leafy bract-like segm. ; pyrenes ovoid, 

 compressed, winged on one edge, convex on one surface, con- 

 cave on the other. 



Near the coast in the moist region; rather rare, often cultivated. 

 Colombo; Galle; Tangalle. Fl. October; white. 



Also in Andaman Is., Malaya, Pacific Is., N. Australia; doubtfully 

 wild in Peninsular India. 



There are only drawings — no specimens — of this in Hermann's col- 

 lection. The bract-like leafy appendages to some of the lower calyces 

 are persistent in the head of fruit, and very characteristic. 



This is a Malayan and Pacific maritime plant, and, like several others 



